“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.” Proverbs 16:9

Our house is almost 50 years old! And challenges come with age. While doing laundry, we discovered water running all over the floor! “No problem,” I thought. I simply speed dialed my plumber. While I like him, I DIDN’T like his diagnosis. Trying to bust through a pipe closed off with rust, he said he’d be back to bypass the P-trap if the rooting didn’t work. It didn’t!

He told me what he was going to do, which entailed busting up some concrete floor. Since I have wooden floors over that cement, I asked if I could do any prep work. I moved all the stuff on top of the floor… then the wooden floor itself. It was a LOT of work. When he showed up, I expected a lot of work. Within 15 minutes he hollered that he was through! When He told me there was no charge… I thought I was in the Twilight zone!

I had paid him the first time and the clog wasn’t fixed. When he came back, he discovered another pipe in the wall that he could easily tie into, making busting up the floor unnecessary. But while the repair wasn’t costly, ‘getting back to normal’ WAS!

Since everything had to be removed, sweeping and cleaning was just natural. Some of the crud I discovered had to have been there for decades! With the usual headaches and unexpected difficulties that come with such a project… it took all day. Katie even admired how CLEAN it looked. But I hadn’t been shooting for clean!

In trying to save time and money, I tried to help out the plumber. His suggestion of a fix was just that. Then I remembered this Bible verse! I know my life has issues. And since my life is HIS life, I know God has continual plans to fix me where I am broken. When that happens, my natural instinct is to sometimes want to help Him out, limiting the cost to me-self!! I think I’ve been had!

The plumbing problem ended up being a HUGE frustration as EVERYTHING went wrong. After a short time I got tired of getting angry, deciding to relax and just take everything in stride. AND to Praise the Lord while doing it. The WORK didn’t change, but my attitude did! Looking back, I hadn’t set out to work on my patience. But apparently… He did! So I thanked Him for His tricky ways! The icing on the cake came with His response… “no charge!”

What’s God ultimately working on in YOUR life?