I Can Do All Things...

At a youth group meeting last year, the other leader challenged us all to come up with a personal mission statement.  Now, I've helped create mission statements for various organizations and companies before and it wasn't fun.  A mission statement is like a promise you are making to a customer, an employee etc.  Now I am not saying a promise isn't a good thing, I am saying you have to really be able to stand behind the mission statement you choose to represent you.  I thought for a long time about what kind of statement I wanted people to remember me by.  

I thought about the characteristics that people like about me and the image I am already portraying to others.  The one thing that I kept hearing people say is how I can make them laugh or that I am always happy.  Wow...that's some pretty strong pressure there...but a huge compliment.   So I thought about why I can make them happy and I realized that no matter what God throws at me I will survive.  I can do anything!  At the same time Joey issued the challenge, my daughter came home from her youth group with a Bible verse to memorize. 

The verse was Philippians 4:13.

"I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me."

Wow...talk about a God moment!  I decided that was going to be my personal mission statement.  I taped it to my bathroom mirror to remind myself every day.  And every day as I am getting ready to face the day I look at the simple but powerful message taped to my mirror.  I also chose it for the header on my blog.  

I have to admit though I do struggle with remembering my mission statement.  Take the last 24 hours for example.  I got an email from Verizon stating my bill was two months past due.  WHAT are you kidding me.  How could my bill be TWO months past due and holy crud that's my office line and I need my phone for work.  So my husband called Verizon and discovered that somehow we were signed up for paperless billing.  Really paperless billing...I know it's a good thing but how about a phone call when you didn't get our payment when you see we pay on a timely basis.  OK I'll stop venting about that and explain we got it all straightened out...no service interruption and no late charge and NO more paperless billing.  PHEW...I can handle all things! 

Fast forward a few hours like right before the kids bedtime to be exact.  

You know it's never a good sign when one of your kids, yells down the steps UH...we have a problem.  We discovered their toilet won't flush. OK no big deal we will get the plunger and try to plunge it.  Guess again...doesn't work.  We, well I should say my husband, took the back off and checked everything out but we can't get it to flush correctly.  I can say that a few nights ago I was standing in my daughter's room, which is right beside their bathroom and it sounded like a jet plane was taking off when the toilet was flushed!  We decided we would just look at it again in the morning and maybe it would miraculously fix itself.  

Fast forward about three more hours when it was time for my husband and I to go to bed.  Hubby tried the toilet one more time before bed and nope still not flushing right.  ERGGHHH!  I started thinking about all the reasons why it might not be working and it hit me like a ton of bricks...maybe there is a leak in one of the pipes.  You know come to think of it, the shower has been making this weird noise the past few days...

I convinced my husband to go to the basement just to check things out.  Now the kids play down there so I wasn't too worried because they would tell me if they saw anything wrong right?!??!  UMMM apparently they didn't see the huge puddle of water coming out of the hot water heater.  Are you kidding me it's 11:00 and there is water leaking out of the water heater?  Hubby told me it wasn't too bad and not to worry about it until morning.  Yeah right how can I not worry about it...you see in September we were the lucky recipient of a foot of water in our basement thanks to all the rain and hurricanes that decided to visit us.  So how could I not worry!  Needless to say I didn't get much sleep.  

When I went down to the basement this morning, I was greeted with more than just a little bit of water.  Are you kidding me...I spent three days in September sucking up water out of the same basement...I wanted to cry.  You know God..you really do have a sense of humor...I know I can do all things but do you really have to test me????

So the Hubs and I spent the day...well mostly him, sucking and sweeping water in the basement.  On my lunch break we ran to Lowe's to buy a new bigger shop vac so we didn't have to keep emptying the one we currently have.  There is still water to be sucked in the basement but the water heater has stopped leaking thanks to my awesome friend and neighbor.  I am so grateful to him.  It is hard to find honest contractors these days.  Heath has helped us out numerous times in the past few months.  He lent us fans after the flood so we could dry out the basement, he installed our sump pump so we wouldn't have a wet basement again and he did an awesome job renovating our living room and hallway.  

I still haven't made it to the shower yet today but will be headed there as soon as I checked the water heater one last time but I did learn a valuable lesson today...or was just reminded AGAIN!

"I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me."

Do you have a mission statement?  How do you face day to day struggles...Who do you turn to in times of need?

Thanks for stopping by and as always, I'd love to hear your comments!

Much Love to All,

~W~