Sometimes it’s the little things that matter the most. One of the prayers suggested in yesterday’s Proverbs 31 devotional was “Show me the beauty in the midst of these difficulties.” I read that statement, tucked it away in a corner and moved on.
Now as I reflect on yesterday, I see the beauty. Was yesterday a particularly difficult day? Not really. Was it the day I wanted, had planned? Nope.
In the midst of our daily dealings with worker’s compensation, Social Security, injuries, illness and self-employment, my husband and I do lead normal lives and are normal people with wants, needs and desires. It’s difficult to see the normalcy sometimes but I’m sure it’s there somewhere. 
Yesterday was a “big day” for me. I was wrapping up the final details on a book and had a few minor adjustments to make before uploading the files to the printer’s ftp site. Then, after months and months, the book would be out of my hair finally. One less project to worry about. But it wasn’t so. Not long after I crawled out of bed and padded to the living room, my husband appeared to tell me that I was volunteered to go to Nettles for tractor parts. Well, there went my plans for the day. I had to fight down the urge to vent because I hate being volunteered for things without being asked first or given more than an hour notice. So I put on my happy face and prepared to make the 20 mile trip to Nettles.
One tiny blessing was I would be in the same area as a grocery store that had cat food on sale. Sounds like a bizarre blessing but when you’re feeding 7 cats, the food bill can get kinda high. In fact, this particular grocery store had a buy one, get one free sale. Yippee!!! Plus the store was having Dollar Days so the deals would be fantastic. After visiting the tractor store, I headed for the grocery store and made a beeline for the cat food aisle. Much to my dismay, one lonely bag of buy one, get one cat food sat on the shelf. I picked it up and wandered back to the customer service counter to inquire about more bags. As I held up my bag, the lady chuckled and said, “You must be looking for the buy one, get one free cat food.” I told her there was only one bag left and asked if there were any more in the back. After determining that every stock person in the store was taking a lunch break (poor scheduling in my opinion), the store manager decided to go look for more food for me. A few minutes later he came back empty handed. We stood in the aisle contemplating the empty shelf for what seemed like forever. Finally I asked if I could have another bag of the same size but a different brand. He looked around a bit and then asked if I could use a big bag (18 lbs). Careful to not appear too joyful, I said, “Well, I guess so…I don’t see why not. Why?” He then offered to give me a big bag minus the price of the sale. I ended up with a large bag of brand name catfood for $7!!!!! To some that may appear insignificant, but when you’re on a tight budget, a $7 bag of cat food is a wonderful thing – possibly just short of a miracle.
But the beauty in the midst of difficulties didn’t end there. A friend called in the evening asking if we would come visit for a few minutes to help with something. Being human, I griped because once again I wouldn’t be able to finish my work. We pulled into their driveway and found furniture sitting outside. Their living room was empty minus the TV stand, end tables and two very confused little dogs. A relative had come to visit and, while yard sale shopping that day, bought them a sofa and recliner that was in excellent condition. Out with the old in with the new. Then before I realized what happened, we were the proud new owners of one of their old sofas. We really didn’t need a new sofa but this one was too good to pass up. It is less than 4 years old, is a top-of-the-line sleeper sofa and is in pristine condition. The colors match perfectly and it’s the perfect size for our living room. (We have a small living room and can’t accomodate a full-size sofa along with a recliner, fish tank, coffee table etc.)
Yesterday reminded me that sometimes the little things like being a friend are more important than the big things like wrapping up a project. If I would have insisted on staying home, I wouldn’t be looking forward to the arrival of our new sofa later today. If I would have protested going to the tractor store, I would be buying cat food again in another week. Now if I could only look forward to a working dishwasher and a clean kitchen. (More to follow later about the dishwasher drama.)
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Kara, I am SO happy for you about the cat food and the couch! That is GREAT! And don’t worry, you will get that icky book off and on its way to the publisher soon. You are such a good writer. Maybe you should write a book…now that you have all this spare time with the dishwasher : ). Happy Sunday! Becky