Is there Anything or Anyone I Can Control?

      One thing I can control is the size of this font..... and that is about it.  Well there are a few other things.  What time I get up and go to bed (not whether I sleep or not).  What or when I eat (now that am not employed fulltime).  What I wear.  Where I go and when I go (except for the bathroom which my body now controls).
Whether or not I work and what I choose to do.

     There are a host of things I cannot control:

• the weather                                    
• my mother-in-law
• traffic
• what others say
• my adult children
• my husband
• my church
• bureaucrats
• criminals
• terminal illness
• my computr crashing
• thinning hair
• car problems
• aging skin (not enough money)

Having raised three children who are now 45 and 40, I think I know a thing or two about raising children, staying "happily married" and avoiding bankrupcy/foreclosure.  I gave lip service to the fact that God is in control of my family and finances but I really thought I was in control.  Au contraire!  Let's just say, "I don't control squat!"
Not even the dog does what I say.  My mother noticed this much sooner than I did.  On observing my children she said, "One word from you and they do as they please!"

Pricilla tells a funny story that could have been written by my children.  The mother was having a party.  She and the kids, in my case my kids were my "servants", cleaned up the house spic and span.  She went into the guest bathroom and hung fresh hand towels for the guests.  She pinned a note to the towels that said, "If you touch these towels I will kill you!"  You can guess the ending; she forgot to remove the note and there it was for all the guests to see.....I imagine they dried their hands on the curtains.

Daily we are all faced with things we can and cannot control.  We can accept that fact or be a frustrated, angry person.  Sometimes the car or tractor in front of us will go so slow we want to get out and push them.  Or the septic tank backs up when we have house guests.  Or the house insurance goes up $800 for seemingly no reason.  We can accept the fact that the universe does not revolve around us and we are not the manager but we can seek the One who is in control and ask him for the grace to get through the test.  When I am so burdened I give up, I am right where God wants me... dependent on Him

Hope this is helpful; I am preaching to myself.  Daily I am having to decide whether I will pick up the cross of control or the cross of surrender.  It is getting a little easier to reach for the cross of surrender BUT I can blow it at any moment.  You can be sure I will tell you all about it.  And thanks for those who have encouraged me with this blog!