Looking for the Silver Lining When Things Go Wrong

What do you do when things go wrong for you?

Do you look towards the Lord and the hidden blessings?

This year came in as a doozy for us.

We started with the year with the flu--yes, all 11 eleven of us. It wasn't fun. It took several weeks to get over and we didn't have it all at the same time.

And then we had issues with our water in our home being turned off every other week because of a problem in the neighborhood. Which meant no cooking, showering, or anything. One time we didn't have it for a week!

Then there were other things that happened like the day I woke up and my son found a leak in our basement--we  didn't know where it was coming from and my husband couldn't come home from work. And it just kept getting worse.

Through it all, it was easy to get discouraged, but I knew that I had to trust the Lord. Things seemed dismal but I couldn't let it get a hold of me.

So I made it a point every day to find the "hidden" blessings in the situation or as they say, there is a "silver lining in every cloud"--I just needed to find them.

And I would speak them out loud to my children. So that "I "could hear them (and encourage myself) and so the children would learn to have a positive outlook as they looked to the Lord's provisions in every situation as a blessing. And each time I would say point them out, they would agree and have hope instead of being negative or discouraged themselves.

You see, because eventually, we did get better from the flu--and not only that but we had medicine, beds to sleep in, soup, and hot food to help us get better. And since it went through us a few at a time, there was always some one healthy enough to keep up the house and help out with the ones who weren't well.

And when the water shut off we were able to drive a few minutes down the road and easily buy bottled water and paper plates and supplies to keep meals going without being able to wash the dishes. AND we got a break from having to do the dishes (the kids liked that part.)

And that horrible water leak? Well, honestly, I did panic a bit but eventually I found the source of the leak on my own without my husband. It turns out one of the children accidentally turned on the water under the upstairs sink when putting away some things from the store. When we turned it off the leaking immediately stopped. Very little damage was done when it was all said and done even though we thought it would be way worse.

And me? Well, I am just grateful. Looking for the blessings and saying them out loud to my children was a great reminder that yes---things will go wrong but we need to have hope. We need to look to the Lord for that hope and ask Him for help.

We need to trust Him when we are discouraged and find the hidden blessings, praise Him, and be grateful for them. Because He has definitely provided for us in other ways. And if we look close enough we will find them.