Did everyone get their hat?

I'm throwing a pity party and you're invited! Today seems like it was Monday and nobody told me.


Chris noticed two really big water stains on our ceiling and went upstairs to find that our hot water heater is leaking... a lot. Note to builders, the attic is not a great place to put a hot water heater. Lilly is over tired and has been a total drama queen tonight so it's an early bedtime for her tonight. I sat down in my recliner only to find that it is now broken. An issue with the phone company from a year ago that was supposedly resolved after I complained to several government agencies is resurfacing. Let's see what else I can complain about, right?!


Well, boo I say! Trials come at us in life and it is then that we find out who we really are. I was reading from my C.S. Lewis book, Mere Christianity, today and stumbled upon a great truth. Or not so great truth depending on how you look at it. "We begin to notice, besides our particular sinful acts, our sinfulness; begin to be alarmed not only about what we do, but about what we are. This may sound rather difficult, so I will try to make it clear from my own case. When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is  some sin against charity; I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed.  And the excuse  that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected: I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself.  Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards those particular  acts: they would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate and premeditated.  On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly.  But the suddenness does not create the rats:  it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man:  it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am.  The rats are  always there  in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light.”


So how will I respond to this? Admittedly, a bit pessimistic. I start to wonder what else will go wrong? But I will choose not to lash out in anger. I know there are "rats in the cellar" so to speak. So my goal is to not let my current woes become an excuse for treating people poorly. Because, in all honesty, that is one of my faults. I can be quick to temper sometimes, just ask my husband :( My prayer tonight is that I will not let the rats out to play.