"Being positive in a positive situation is easy. Anyone can do that. But when we are positive in a negative situation it shows a genuine trust in God and a spiritual maturity that pleases and glorifies God" - Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind.
In the matter of about an hour last Wednesday the course of our lives—and house— took a different turn than we had ever planned or anticipated. It was around 2 p.m. and I was making coffee when I glanced out the window and noticed a wateriness to the back yard that was altogether not right.
I stepped onto the deck to check it out and the sound of angry water, like a swollen creek, put me on alert. I had heard this sound before. It brought me back to the early morning of February 21, 2009 when our unit got the brunt of a burst water main. Last time it was beside our townhouse building. This time it turned out to be directly under the utility room attached to our home.
I alerted my husband. He started calling people. I ran downstairs, but already black water was flowing onto the three-year-old laminate. In the hour that it took for the city to shut off the flow, our den, storage area, and much of the garage was inundated with biohazard water. Ugh!
Then I started counting my blessing:
841. We were warm and dry;
842. We had a big jug of Safeway water on hand for the hours our complex was waterless;
843. We were insured;
844. A restoration company was taking care of the mess;
845. I was so glad this hadn't happened two weeks earlier when we were away on holidays.
846. When my attitude threatened to slump, I came upon my own words, written for my devo blog and published Thursday morning—the morning after our watery encounter. The quote I had included from Joyce Meyer was especially meaningful:
"Practice being positive in each situation that arises. Even if whatever is taking place in your life at the moment is not so good, expect God to bring good out of it, as He has promised in His Word....
...Being positive in a positive situation is easy. Anyone can do that. But when we are positive in a negative situation it shows a genuine trust in God and a spiritual maturity that pleases and glorifies God" - Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind, pp. 38, 44.
Other blessings from the past two weeks:
847. My healthy, pain-free body, appreciated especially after seeing my friend, who broke her shoulder just before Christmas, ease into her jacket.
848. Raspberry chocolates. We got some for Christmas and have been working on them ever since (they are now gone *sigh*). There should be a law against such!
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| Looking across the Fraser River near Derby's Reach, toward Maple Ridge. |
852. Curling season has begun!
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