When everything is going wrong in life, we have to go right

This week, oh sweet love of dark chocolate, this week has been one for the books. I was taking deep breaths to dive into homeschool and not even THINK about what was going on in the foster care world when we take my daughter to urgent care for her finger. Result: she has an avulsion fracture. Basically, she fractured her knuckle. Who does this?? Ok. No big deal. We'll see the specialist and get it taken care of. Monday comes and I make a thousand and one phone calls, squeeze in a meeting during the solar eclipse while simultaneously guiding my homeschooled boys through their science observation project on the matter. Yeah, that worked as well as baking with toddlers. We survived, we moved on. God provides. We live by faith. All is well. Wednesday comes and I'm determined we WILL nail this day. Yet I woke up with an ear infection and it hurts like a lego to the foot (which by the way, I stepped on first thing this morning and the irony is not lost on me). Awesome. Recess comes, good we need a break. My boys want to show me tricks on their razor scooters. Down goes my oldest in the road. Another trip to urgent care. Result: a broken radius. That's just fabulous. I've now called the ortho to let them know I need 2 appointments preferably as close together as possible for my 2 children. Ugh.
It's been a very long week and it's only Wednesday. I'm done for the week if you know what I mean. My first instinct is to just lock the door and eat an entire giant bag of M&Ms while vegging on Friends. My first instinct is to go inward so that I can shove it in and be ready to go back at it tomorrow. That's what we do. We stuff it so we don't have to deal with it and we can move on pretending we don't need help and we're fine. We've gotten so good we rarely even tell God much less our best friends. Here's the thing, when everything is going wrong, we have to make sure that we go right. God has told us hard times will come. God has told us we need to prepare to persevere. He wasn't making light suggestions either. These are the times that drive us to closeness with Him or a much greater distance from Him. We have to make the right choices when the wrong things keep happening. Life isn't fair, God is fair. Life isn't certain, God is certain. Most of the time life isn't even good to us, but God is ALWAYS good to us.
When you take a moment to take a step back, it all becomes a little more clear. Life happens around us, not necessarily to us. I was at my daughter's school getting her instrument for school and it was super crowded because there are just lots of people! I've come to expect crowds, lines, and delay with everything that has to do with the school and parents. It is what it is. There was a lady who calls out a man and asks him rudely to get someone else to help HER line go faster because she had been waiting for too long. After my super long week, I felt sorry for her. She was concerned with no one else in that room. Literally, a hundred people and she didn't care. I wondered how bad her life had to be to not care about others and hold so little grace inside. That's what happens when we take all of life personally. When we allow all of the wrong things to pull us down the wrong path, we lose our fill of grace. When everything is going wrong in life, we have to go right. He is always right. Nothing else can soothe the wounds, fill the void, or usher in the peace like He can. There is nowhere else to go in weeks like this than His arms. If you're having one of those weeks this week or you had one last week or next week is your turn, remember to go straight to Him. Don't pass go, do not collect $200, just go straight to Him. And that's the word this week :)