One of the drawbacks of living faraway involves unexpected changes in plans. If you're like me I look forward with great anticipation to our times together, and when things change at the last minute it often leaves me discouraged, and maybe even a bit angry, it pains me to say.
This happened recently. On the 4th of July weekend we had made plans to all meet at our cabin in NC. It was perfect because our sons wouldn't have to take much time off from work, and we'd have a long weekend together. At least that's what we thought...
Until the phone rang...
Our daughter called saying her toddler had a fever and was throwing up two days before the trip. With our daughter-in-love 6 months pregnant we couldn't risk her being exposed, so our daughter made the hard decision to not come with her husband and four of our seven grandchildren. :-(
I wasn't ready for this change! I had planned a group birthday party for five of my seven little people who have birthdays wrapped around July 4th. I had saved all of their gifts to give to them in person. I had bought them all matching Fourth Of July t-shirts for the parade. I was anticipating this weekend so much so that it was hard to recover from the disappointment, but I knew I had to. I still had three precious little people coming to spend time with Nana and Papa. They expected me to be fun and happy, but I didn't feel it.
So I did what I had to do. I cried out to God to forgive me for being angry at Him for allowing my plans to fall through. I asked Him to help me refocus and rejoice. I knew He had a purpose in the changes, and I also knew that I wouldn't find the good if I was focusing on the bad. He helped me embrace my time with my grandchildren, and we had a great weekend!
We gave the birthday gifts to the ones who were there, and we made plans to take a detour home to deliver the birthday gifts to the ones who weren't. I postponed the party until we could be together again, since they didn't know I had this part planned. :-)
I'm happy to say we were all able to be together this past weekend, and it was made sweeter because of the bitter disappointment of the month before.
Papa and I took the four oldest (two aged six and two aged 8) to see the Minion Movie at the theatre. We had Slushies, popcorn and lots of fun. When we got home our daughters had set up my Minion surprise party, complete with twinkie cupcakes made to look like a Minion. They had no idea that this party was supposed to happen in July.
What's the take away from all this?
I believe it's to hold our plans loosely, for we never know when circumstances will change. This makes the times when we do get to be together that much more precious.
No comments:
Post a Comment