My New Dishwasher!!

So here is the story of my new dishwasher:

It's Wednesday evening, and I have a pile of dirty dishes from making homemade ice cream and trying to make a pumpkin pie. The reason I have so many dirty dishes is because our dishwasher isn't the best there is out there. I think most, if not all, dishwashers now days have two rotating sprayers (is that what they are called?). One on the bottom and the other below the top rack. Well, ours didn't have both. Ours had the one on the bottom, and that one didn't even turn. So I had to practically wash the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. Even after I had rinsed all food off the plates and rinsed all the cups before putting them in the dishwasher, they would still come out with food on them or spots on them as if the soap didn't get rinsed off very well. So I would have to wash them a second time. Plus, a few of the wheels were missing.

On top of all that, if you didn't know already, I'm not too fond of my job and have been looking for other work, and today was just one of those days where I didn't like my job more than other days. So I decide to give myself a pity party. I'm standing there in the kitchen full of dirty dishes, crying because in a round about way 'my life is so terrible because I don't like my job and my dishwasher stinks' (using my best sarcastic very over-dramatic voice). Sometimes you just need a good cry over silly things.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am very thankful for having a job at all. I know during this time a lot of people are worse off than me. And I am thankful for a dishwasher. I really don't like to have to stand there and wash dishes. I have and I will, but I am thankful that I don't have to. So my wonderful husband tells me to stop what I'm doing and get in the truck. We are going for a drive. I'm thinking we are just going to drive around, get me out of the house so I can calm down. We drive into town and stop at Lowe's. I think he must have to pick up something at work. I follow him to the back of the store and we stop at the dishwashers.

He asks me which one would I like. I tell him that we don't need a new one; I can deal with the one we have. He persists, so I begin to tell him what I would like to have. I would like to have one that has two rotating sprayers - one on the top and one on the bottom. Other than that it doesn't really matter. He keeps on, "Which one of these do you want? We are taking a dishwasher home tonight."

Then I begin to freak out. What?! Really?! A new dishwasher?!
So here it is!

And, yes, that is the pumpkin pie that I finally got done sitting on the counter above the dishwasher!!

I need to work on making the pie crust, but Mr. McCann says it was good! : )

Being Jonah

We've all heard or read the story of Jonah and the whale. The Lord tells Jonah to go preach to the people in Ninevah. Jonah doesn't want to so he runs away. However, God stops him, and Jonah ends up in the belly of a big fish. Jonah ends up going to Ninevah, he preaches what God wants him to preach, and his mission is done. But Jonah never changed his attitude. He continued to be angry throughout his entire mission.

Have you ever felt like Jonah? Have you ever felt angry because God was telling you to do something you didn't want to do?

I have. For quite a while I have felt like this. But only recently have I been able to identify this feeling and have been able to clearly see who I have been acting like. I have been acting like Jonah. And I don't like it.

I think God must have me where I am right now for a reason. What's that reason? I don't know. How long will I be where I am? I don't know. What exactly will I be doing here? I don't know. What I do know is this deep feeling that I am here because He put me here, and I won't be leaving until He is ready for me to leave.

And like Jonah, I've done my share of running the other direction. I've tried to go somewhere else and do something else, but nothing ever happens. I'm stuck here. Then a pastor said aloud what I had been thinking to myself for a few days now: "What if you are there for a reason?" And like Jonah, I've been angry, upset, and feeling sorry for myself. But then I thought, what happened to Jonah after he completed his mission? We don't know. Throughout his entire mission, he was angry. So my best guess is that he continued to be angry even after his mission was complete. Doesn't seem like a very happy ending to me.

So here I am, ready and trying to be willing to do whatever it is the Lord wants me to do because I am tired of being angry and upset over this and I am tired of feeling sorry for myself. I want to have a happy ending when this mission is complete.

All that being said, I guess this is just a prayer request. Pray that I stop being like Jonah. Pray that I stop running away and face this mission that God has placed me in. Pray that God gives me the strength to lay my anger and self-pity at the feet of Christ each and every day.

Thank you for listening, or reading I guess I should say, and thank you for your prayers.