Seeing God’s Best In Every Situation
I try to see God’s best in every situation,
but when I walked into
the lobby of our hotel …
I just knew this stay
was going to be an adventure.
Mr. 4-Ever often gets us great hotels at low prices,
but every once in a while
we miss out on the
Swanky Suites
and end up at
Bob’s Sleep Palace.
Such was the case this trip.
Every surface in sight was filthy.
The smell of antiseptic cleaner in the lobby
warned of impending germs…
Or bugs …
Or worse.
Our room smelled like an ashtray.
A bare wire lay exposed in one of the outlets.
The drains in the sink and tub weren’t just slow,
they became standing basins of yucky water.
The handle to the hot water faucet came off in Mr. 4-Ever’s hand!
The worst part?
We’d booked through “Hotel Roulette”
(a non-refundable online service)
and were stuck.
For three days!
I was beyond disappointed.
I was mad.
I stomped around the property
for an entire afternoon
discovering more and more reasons
to hate my circumstances.
Finally, I flopped down on a dirty chair,
at a dirty table,
under a dirty umbrella
near the questionable pool.
(No doubt another incubator of bacteria.)
I looked around.
Another woman sat across the pool deck.
I could barely hear that she was reading from
Psalms out of the Bible in front of her.
Since I always go to the book of Psalms
when I’m discouraged, I thought,
She’s probably bummed out, too!
Maybe the Lord stuck me with Bob’s Sleep Palace
so I can minister to this hurting woman!
I walked over to her.
“Psalms, huh?
Everything okay?”
I gently asked her.
She looked up and beamed at me.
Beamed!
“Oh, yes,” she said,
“I’m just praising God for his goodness to me
for letting me have a vacation at such a nice place.
I’m celebrating by
rejoicing in the psalms.”
Talk about a fast attitude shift!
We were at the same place
with the same circumstances
and the same view.
One of us was delighted and
one of us was a bitter-brat.
Gulp.
From now on
I’m taking my cue from that sweet stranger
at Bob’s Sleep Palace.
I am going to be that girl who rejoices.
The one who celebrates her Savior,
rather than focusing on her circumstances.
How about you?
Have you ever thought you deserved
Better treatment
Greater recognition
More money
Improved circumstances?
Choose to see God’s best
in your current situation.
Scripture refresher: Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. Hebrews 12:15 NIV
Prayer: God, thanks for showing me a better way. Thanks for patiently waiting out my pout and stomp as you set up the perfect encounter to readjust my attitude. Root out any bitterness in me that corrupts my life and contaminates other people. Amen.
This was EXCELLENT!!! I love it when God shows us a different, beautiful perspective on something and opens our eyes to how God He is ALWAYS!! Thanks for sharing this Robyn! ?
*Good (not God)
Something kind of similar happened to me yesterday. I am on a buying sight where a lady shops with coupons and then offers “deals” to the ones on her internet sight. Usually she sells shampoos and beauty needs and lists them all so that one person can buy all of an item. That is alright to a point. Yesterday she listed “pull ups” and one person bought all 9 packages. Where there are many young single girls raising babies, needing this sort of thing and not having the money to buy it, I commented on this. It would have been a “blessing” to them to be able to buy a box of these at a cheap price….but instead, one person, from a 2 working person household was told they could have ALL of the boxes. As a person who buys needed items for young mothers, I was just shocked when people said mean things to me because I didn’t agree with one person who could afford them, getting all of them. I guess that God will get the last word. I just dropped out of that group so that I wouldn’t see this again.
Dang, Janice. It’s a sad day when you can’t voice your opinion without getting skewered.
Thank you, Robyn, for being so open and honest. Yes, I am a brat too and appreciate your sharing from brat to another
. Oh, I just finished your book and was surprised at “the rest of the story”. I am so glad I bought an extra to share. God bless!
Thank You for sharing your situation , your thoughts & honesty . Situations don’t just happen , we ( I ) need to be aware & pay attention to HIM ??
Thanks Robyn for sharing. I really needed to hear this today!
Are you sure that the stranger at the pool wasn’t the owner? 😉 haha. JK.
That never occurred to me, Beth. Maybe… lol
Still the message wasn’t lost on me.