I Will Make Better Choices Today

At 10:30 am Friday, I thought I was having a bad morning. I have been praying about and trying to figure out how to better handle a situation and somebody basically questioned every solution I had come up with.

At 1:30 pm, I thought I was having a bad day trying to set up the silly pool shown here. Somebody gave us an 18 foot by 4 foot deep pool. It was hard to manuver around and it was kinda nasty cleaning it up. On top of that, our back yard is so not level I did not think we would be able to fill it anyway.

At 4:00 pm, I thought I was having a bad day because I spent money to buy sand to help level the area where the pool is only to discover that it would cost me another $150 (at least) to get enough sand to fix the problem. Basically there is no way to get this pool to 'work' without investing in something to level the ground.

A short time after that, I KNEW I was having a bad day because I told Amanda to 'shut up' when she was trying to be funny to make me feel better (since I was obviously in a foul mood). At our house, we don't tell people to 'shut up'. And before that, I had yelled at Brooke, pouted about the pool and acted pretty much like a jerk.

At 5:00 pm, I said I was sorry to both Brooke and Amadna. And then Amanda misbehaved and I went balistic again. Then I left to play poker with the guys. I'm home now and both Brooke and Amanda are in bed. The last thing they heard me do is blow up...after doing that pretty much all day since noon.

I had a not-so-great night, too, thinking about how I treated my family. As I drove home from playing poker, I asked the Lord to forgive me for having such a horrible attitude today and reflected on the fact that happiness is a choice...at least in middle class America. And I made a poor choice...actually, SEVERAL poor choices. It amazes me how I let little things control me. So what if somebody didn't like a decision I made? I've made wrong decisions before and even if I'm right on this one, people have disagreed with me before and they certainly will disagree again. And the whole pool thing...it could have been a funny story had I chosen to react differently.

So as it's close to 3:00 am on Saturday and I am heading to bed. I've made my peace with the Lord, I kissed Amanda when I came home and I will write a short love note and an apology to Brooke before I turn in. I didn't make very good choices this day. Thank you, Jesus, that you give me second chances. Thank you for giving me a family who loves me even when I act like I did on Friday! I will make better choices today.

- Rob