choosing to see

I'm happy to be getting over the mood that yesterday's foibles put me in. As I read a friend's blog this morning, as she talked about choosing to see God's grace in the everyday things in life and asked what God's grace had been in our days, my first reaction was..."Well, I don't think there was much yesterday!" But oh, how wrong a thought that was! As I paused a moment more to reflect, two things, in particular (and I'm quite sure there were many more) sprang to my mind.

It was truly God's grace that Maggie didn't get seriously injured or even killed by the car yesterday. Though I portrayed it in yesterday's post in a slightly humorous light, the reality is, at that moment yesterday, I was standing in the middle of the road, hands on my head, screaming as I thought I was about to see my dog die. And another reality is, that no matter how crazy she makes me, we do ALL love the dumb beast (even Todd, at some level, I'm pretty sure) and it would have been horrible had the car not gotten stopped at the last moment. Plus, Kate was not here (nor was Bryce) and I had an extra little one, and I don't know what I would have done if I would have had to pack them all up, along with a stricken dog who is too heavy for me to carry and get her to a vet's. Yes, in hindsight there was MUCH grace in that situation yesterday.

Secondly, we were at friends' for our small group dinner last night. They have 2 little pug dogs who all the kids were quite fascinated with. After Luke's incident with the bite 2 weeks ago, I was trying to be cautious and aware that the kids weren't giving them too much affection...though these dogs were completely (and amazingly) tolerant of all the kids' love. However, Luke's cousin Elley hung back, as she is quite terrified of dogs. From her perch on a chair she asked Luke if they would bite her. He reassured her, "No! Dogs never bite!" (Uh, apparently the trip to the ER, the stitch, etc. didn't make much impact!) While I'm thinking he didn't learn much of a lesson, I'm also glad that his intense fear of dogs has not made any kind of recurrence! Again, a grace I'm thankful for.

So, thanks Zoanna, for the reminder to not dwell on the negative, but choose to see God's hand at work in each day. And hopefully you readers will experience God's graces in your day! (And I'd love to hear about them - leave me a comment sharing where you saw or experience grace this week!)