No, My Life Ain't Perfect

  Someone recently commented about her Facebook friends and their sunshiny status updates. God is good, life is great. Couldn’t be happier. No troubles, no disasters. Just living everyday without getting a scratch on them. She asked, “Do people really have those kinds of lives? If so, I must be doing  something wrong!”

I chattered away about how “of course people don’t live like that.” They only put the good things in their life on display. Who wants to read about the bad? Who wants the world to know about their struggles and heartache and rejection they face on a daily basis?

Somewhere along those lines, I realized I’m one of those people. Really, how many depressing status updates of mine have you read? Do you get the impression my life is perfect? (Hold on until I can stop laughing…)

No, my life ain’t perfect. I cry on a regular basis. Hey, even the sight of a pot holder can bring up memories that send me sobbing. Pain and confusion run deep below the surface of my heart. Doubts about what in the world I’m supposed to be doing freeze me with fear at times.

I’m not happy with my weight (who is?), there’s my knee injury that gives me trouble at the oddest times, and there’s the adult acne battle going on for a number of years. My eyeglasses are twice as thick as your grandmother’s. I don’t have a car or much gas money. Most of my clothes are given to me by my “personal shoppers” as I like to call them. (I hate shopping anyway)

Then there are those disasters. I can joke that I live life in the breaks I get between crisis’s. I could recount the ones just since January of this year, but I don’t want to write that long of a post.

I love my family more than anything and would drop my heart’s desire in a breath to run to their aid. And that’s what I do. My writing journey has been put on hold so many times in the last two years, I’d have to take off my socks to count them. But that’s okay. I know it’s all in God’s timing and I’ve seen it work out perfectly again and again.

Oops. There’s that perfect word. But what does the scripture say? But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:4. (NKJV) Perfect in this case meaning mature. I like the sound of being mature and complete. That’s what God wants my life to be, and what I strive for everyday.

Still, my life ain’t perfect and I hope neither here on my blog nor on Facebook and Twitter, does my life seem that way to the outside observer. But now, at least, you can consider yourself an insider into the life and times of Sarah Elisabeth.

For Him,

Sarah Elisabeth

P.I.C.N.I.C. Problems

  In case you missed my post on the Jewels of Encouragement blog, here it is:

I encountered a P.I.C.N.I.C problem—again. 

I first learned that term during a Toastmaster’s roast speech given by “Joe” who had spent the last twenty-eight years working on computers. Joe said the problems he’d dealt with fell into two categories, the most common being P.I.C.N.I.C. He explained the techie term:

Problem

In

Chair

Not

In

Computer

I fall into that category more than any of us would want to admit. Nothing more frustrating than constant Error! Error! messages.

Back to my P.I.C.N.I.C problem of late. I was determined to learn how to format my own eBook for such devices I’ve never seen, such as Kindles, Nooks, Sony Readers, this-and-that newest gadget. Not to mention iPhones and Macs. Okay, we won’t go there.

I had a wonderful step-by-step guide to light my way down the lonely HTML path. Scary stuff, not because I’d never used it, but because I had.

The first step got me because it was deceptively simple. Download a freebie Programming Text Editor. Nothing to it.

Error! Error!

I tried again. And again.

I decided to skip that step and move on, trying to use the lame default text editor on my computer. Soon I was back to the freebie, determined to get it downloaded. It proved to be a P.I.C.N.I.C problem.

That overcome, I tried to copy my half-formatted Word doc into my prize editor. Another simple step.

Error! Error!

Three deep breaths, I tried to save the doc.

Error! Error!

Getting frustrated with the Error! Error!? Me too. In my brother’s words, I was ready to throw my laptop into the street. Well, I’d never do that to my baby, but one of us was about to lose it. I did the only thing I could do. Shut it down. Let the soft purr of the fan quiet to stillness. In that silence, it dawned on me the one thing I hadn’t tried to get this to work.

Prayer.

So I did. And I got specific. Lord, please let this program work right. Let me be able to do this.

I rebooted, opened my programs and got back to work. I discovered my latest P.I.C.N.I.C problem and resolved it. Onward.

It wasn’t until I shut down for the night with a hot shower that I realized another prayer was needed.

Thank You Lord, for letting me see my errors.

Ah. I should stop and pray about life’s P.I.C.N.I.C problems more often. God is always waiting with the answers to life's Error! Error! messages.

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Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Prov. 3:5-6 NKJV 

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For Him,

Sarah Elisabeth