Oh what a day!

Today was a day that makes you want to start and start over! We had such an awesome Easter and wonderful church service only to wake up to a hard Monday. First, off Itoday was a day I was struggling with PMS so bad emotionally that it literally made me doubt my salvation. Yesterday, I could have charged hell with a water gun and today I am running for the hills and wanting to hide. (Not standing in the judgment seat against Elijah anymore.) Dalton has to go to the eye doctor again and I had to fork out another co pay of $70! For the third time in 2 weeks! (Not to mention the $40 eye medicine.) I am not complaining about having to take him I am complaining about having insurance and still having to pay that much. Plus, his birthday is Wednesday and it has kind of snuck up on us. I had to add that into the budget. This is after my husband stepped down from his second job because they could not afford to pay him anymore but would love for him to volunteer to do it for free. We lost $1,200 a month coming into our already stretched budget. After the doctor's appointment and grocery shopping I came home to a tired and cranky husband who was leaving for work in 30 minutes. But, on the bright side today was pay day at his job. So, I load all of the kids back into the car and go back into Austin to pick up his check from work so I can get it into the bank before 4:00 PM so nothing bounces. Then come home to pay bills. We have had an adjustment to his new job being paid every Monday instead of every two weeks. The learning curve on budgeting this way has been difficult. I was depressed after having to pick which bills would go late so we could cover the groceries that I had bought. Feeling the weight and strain pressing in on me, I was trying not to take a deep breath and put things in prospective. I tried to work on Mary Kay stuff and see what I could pay out of my account. Only to discover I have over $200 in outstanding orders those customers need to pay me for and have not. MORE stress! So I did the Scarlett O'Hara thing and pushed the money stress to the side and said to myself, "I will think about that tomorrow..." I started supper and tried to get baseball gear gathered for Dalton's game. The thought of dragging all three kids by myself to a 7:15 game was looming over me. Plus, it was my night to bring drinks. I gathered things and asked the kids to start picking up and Dalton called out to me. "Mom where's my glove?" Now this is a sore subject with me. Dalton would lose his head if it was not attached to him and he is notorious for throwing things everywhere. I have a bat bag for him to avoid this problem. All the baseball gear goes in the bat bag so that we don't forget things or lose them on game day. But, Dalton wanted to play catch outside and threw the glove somewhere. Dalton’s idea of searching and looking for something was totally different from mine. Finding it in the toy room floor behind the curtains was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I took a time out and hid in my bathroom and cried. I felt defeated, alone and hopeless. I had a good pity party going with deep thoughts of how life was not fair to me running through my head. I could not eat dinner I was so sick to my stomach and began to gather snacks for the girls to eat at the game and coloring books to keep them entertained. We began to load up things in the car and that is when it happened......

I saw a snake slithering up the side walk in front of my house. I HATE SNAKES! They terrify me and I wanted it nowhere near my house. Darin was not home. I wanted it dead. I ran next door to get my neighbor. I knew he had a garden hoe and I wanted him to kill it. He said, "I'll fight a grizzly bear for you, but I don't do snakes." He got the hoe out of his garage and came to investigate. The snake was gone. He combed the yard and it was no where. I had just relaxed a little and was putting kids in the car seats when he called out, "There it is! It's under your front tire!" I squealed and jumped back! My exposed feet and ankles tingling. I jumped into the front seat of my car and backed up so he could get to it. I watched him fight that little snake. It snapped its head up at him to strike and he came down on it killing it in two blows. Dalton thought it was the coolest thing ever. The look on my neighbors face was priceless. I don't know who was more shaken him or me. I told him he was my hero and the kids and I owed him something baked. I got to the baseball game, found a good parking spot only to realize in the excitement I had left the drinks for the team at home! At that point I just had to laugh. I dropped Dalton off with his coach and turned around for the drinks. On the drive home God revealed himself to me. Just like that little snake striking out was scary it was nothing compared to big garden hoe that struck its head off. Our problems seem so big but we have someone that is waiting to overcome them! They are small to God, like that snake was to my neighbor. 
Luke 10:19 says,
"I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you."
My bills, my stress and yes even my PMS is as small in God's plan as that small snake. At that moment of realization I was empowered and strengthened again.