Attitude is EVERYTHING

My husband is always quoting me "sayings" to help me keep my attitude in check. A huge weakness of mine is letting my outlook on a situation comletely ruin it for me. There are so many cliches out there pertaining to attitude such as: The glass is half full instead of half empty, or The grass is always greener on the other side. Sometimes a time in my life gets completely ruined because my bad attitude gets the best of me.

So this past week my husband and I were at the beach with his Mom and Dad, and younger sister. Also, my entire family was there for at least part of our stay there. We had the blessed opportunity to vacation with extended family AND our lodging was free.

Now, I will preface the rest of my story by telling you quickly about my beach nightmare from last summer. Last summer I was 6 months pregnant with my youngest son, Malachi. I broke out in the pregnancy rash known as PUPPS (not sure what the acrynym means), but in a rush to the nearest medcheck since we were leaving for the beach, I saw a nurse practitioner, and I literally was diagnosed with Scabies. NO KIDDING. I consider it "hell week" because the night before we left for the beach we had done 17 loads of laundry, quarentined our home for 14 hours, and to top it off, we lathered ourselves and our (16 month old at the time, Landri) up with pesticide cream to kill these body bugs that I never imagined in a MILLION YEARS I could have caught. Even when I was a public school teacher I avoided headlice. How could I, a stay at home Mom with no gym membership contract Scabies? Well, the fact is I indeed did not have Scabies. But, for the time being, I thought I did and because we were leaving for our vacation with NO TIME TO GET A SECOND OPINION, I spent a week at the beach on vacation reading the book of Job and trying to make the most of it. I had intense spiritual warfare happening within me. I felt Satan nearby almost on my shoulder taunting me. It was one of the worst weeks of my life. I was inflamed with a rash to beat anything I've ever seen...I will attach a picture of just my wrist so you can get an idea of what my entire body looked like: SCARY HUH? Now imagine the mental anguish that it's live bugs. Every thought possible went through my head like, "how, why?" I was sinking into a dark dark abyss. And it itched LIKE CRAZY. So now realize that it was an immuno reaction to pregnancy and I have a risk of getting it with each subsequent pregnancy....I would almost rather it really have been scabies so I know there's a good chance never again:(

Ok, on with the point: So on top of all the cleaning and the horrible time of getting stared down on the beach, and the sun aggravating my rash and being miserable, I had put chemicals on my pregnant body and my husband and daughter which neither of them had signs of anything it was all precaution...all to kill the "bugs" that I didn't even have UGH! Along the way as it was mentally EXHAUSTING AND I showered 4 times a day while there and got stared down by everybody like "why is she in the pool etc" my incredible husband encouraged me to stay focused on God's grace and the beauty of the ocean and that I would get thru it, and I didnt' want to regret not living in the positive light of the moment that I was on the vacation I'd longed all year for and I wanted to savour it all. So, I kept a great outlook and it ended up being an AMAZING TRIP where I grew ever closer to the Lord and was able to count the many numerous blessings in my life. We ended up seeing a dermatologist at the beach because I was getting no better, and she quickly told me I did not have scabies but that I was experiencing PUPPS. She gave me the needed steroid to supress my reaction and I actually cleared up within a week. IT WAS AMAZING, and I had an incredible end of the week. I KNOW I would have been so sad to get home, learn it was what it was and I wasted my whole trip feeling sorry for myself. What I did was listen to the husband God gave me, and pushed through. ALL OF WHAT I DID BY THE WAY was against what my flesh wanted to do. I wanted to cuss and have a bad attitude. I wanted to be a party pooper and just feel sorry for myself. But praise the Lord I didn't.

Now, onto this past week at the beach. I was convinced after last year, that no beach trip could ever be that miserable (and it wasn't so bad) so I would forever have incredible trips to the beach. And this past week was awesome, only my attitude was the pits all because we stayed in a resort off the beach instead of oceanside. It took us (what seemed like forever) every day just to load our kids and stuff up to meet the family at the beach. It became extremely waring and exhausting and we felt like all we did was RUN. My husband even said once, "I'm ready to go home to rest." I wish one of us would've stopped and said "ATTITUDE CHECK!" That beach trip is over and all I want is the whole thing back. It was only on the last morning of the trip that we vowed to make it a great day inspite of ANYTHING....it was the best day of the week. I have such a regret that we didn't make the most of it. If I would've taken a second to remember my hell week last year and how I enjoyed it, staying a few blocks from the beach was SO MINOR! Satan came after us again, and instead of looking back to last year and showing marks of mature Christianity, we sulked. So, whatever it might be for you, wishing your kids past the stage they're in thinking the next one will be easier somehow, or wishing the summer away for school to start, or wishing the snow to melt away, or grumbling because your hotel isn't on the beach when in reality you're blessed to be at the beach at all, just STOP. In his letter to the Philippians Paul commands us that whatever situation we are in therewith to be content 4:11. Also, James says to consider trials PURE JOY! Not because they are fun but because it is in those trying times we come out on the other side as purified silver, God is magnified as his strength is made perfect in our weakness, and there is a guarenteed purpose. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under Heaven. Enjoy the seasons of life, and find your "code word" that will help you to pause in those moments of bad attitude that will help you remember to stop! Seth's words to me (that he forgot this past week) are "push through." Sometimes he'll just go "Babe, two words." And I know what they are. We all need reminded to keep the glass half full or to just graze in the grass on our side of the fence and be thankful. Just look at these pictures of our healthy and beautiful familes! We area BLESSED! Love to all!