Still workin' on it....

  I have a tee-shirt that is black with a green smiley face on it. But the mouth has duct tape over it and the basic message is - if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.  I bought it one year when I was stressing (now let's see.. which year would that be?  Any one of the past 30??? ) and I thought about hanging it over my desk as a reminder to watch my mouth. I don't have a lot of trouble controlling what I say in the classroom but out of it, I do.
  My mind seems at times to latch onto  negative things like a lint roller picks up lint.  And then, of course, I verbalize what is displeasing in the news, in my life, at home, whatever.  And then, I tell my poor husband that he is too negative...:(
  Today I  saw glasses, not  just half-empty but also leaking rapidly,  where ever I went... So I made an extra effort to compliment the kids on the work they were doing in class.  I also tried to keep a sense of humor.  And even when the fire alarm went off three times in my afternoon classes, I bit my tongue and just looked on the bright side.. yes, the alarm is amazingly, agonizingly loud - it's supposed to be - and standing out in the rain is a bit of a bummer...but my kids seem happy right now and they sure weren't enthused over the Industrial  Revolution a few minutes earlier... so, we're good!
   But of course I was complaining about everything before I got out of school and then rehearsing my complaints on the way home to no one in particular.. since I was the only one in the car.... (And why don't I rehearse the good things over and over ?????  I mean, does Joshua 1:8 tell us to meditate on the annoying things in life??? I really don't think so... And, sadly, that's my, uh, memory verse for this week...Ugh!!!!)
   On the way home, I stopped at the bus stop and waited for my niece.   Since it was raining, I thought it would be fun to pick her up and save her the half-mile walk to her house;, hear about her day at school.  But I got to the bus stop early and so I pulled out the ol' Kindle and started reading my new devotional, Jesus Calling by Sarah Young - which I'm about 3 days behind on... And guess what?  Right in front of me is the passage I should have read this morning and it is about letting God control my thoughts and fill my mind with life and peace.
    Hmmm...
    Then I looked at the one that I should have read yesterday... and it was about not being afraid.  Mrs. Young used the verse Mark 4:39 where Jesus says  "Peace be still!" and the wind does what he tells it to do.  Smart wind...
     Hmmm...
     Maybe that would have helped me when I was cowering in the hallway the other night while the sirens were going off....
     Ya reckon???
      Just a slow learner, like Guinness-Book-of-World-Records slow...
      I've heard God writes straight with crooked sticks.. hope that is true.