Life's Little Bumps

Have you ever been so frustrated and upset over something that you're happy no one is around because you know just how unpleasant you would be? Silly question. I guess we could all probably answer yes to that one.

I'm fairly laid back about many things, but over some things, I do obsess. For anyone who has read my first book, Christmas a Season for Angels, the one true story in it describes a scene between my late husband and myself.

I was frustrated that our insurance company wasn't responding fast enough to one of his hospital bills. After about the fourth time of my bringing it up, he took the paper from my hand, threw it on the floor, and jumped up and down on it. Looking at my startled expression, he calmly asked, "Have we run it into the ground enough yet?"

What's the best medicine for frustration, or at least for me? I think it's laughter, and my husband knew that even before we both broke out laughing, I could finally quit obsessing and handle the matter the next day. God certainly gave Steve to me for that and many other reasons.

Now, without Steve to humor and temper me, I had one of those (fortunately rare) occasions as I described in the first sentence. Frustrated over some issues in the software while helping my sons with taxes, I had hit my limit. I had much to do, and a recent health issue had caused a great deal of backlog in other things I needed to do as well. 

When I finally decided to stop for the night, I took my blood pressure. It was 178/96, and it never went below 164 before going to bed 3 hours later. I'm also on meds to keep it low, so it shouldn't have been and isn't normally that high.

I read before bedtime, and one of the things I'm now reading is Sarah Young's Jesus Today. The lesson that night was more than appropriate. It spoke of turning to God when life's little (or even big) bumps occur, and remembering that He is ultimately in charge. Good thing, because God is the only one who could probably have stood to be around me because I think my attitude this time would have even challenged Steve!

I awoke in the morning feeling much calmer. Unfortunately, my blood pressure will still have to be addressed when I have my physical next week, but maybe my anger and frustration alerted me to the fact that it was still a bit out of control.

So I did take heed. The next time something upset me, I remembered to ask for God's help and then let Him worry about it...and it worked!