God makes the grass grow!

I went to a very nice birthday party last night, and it reminded me of the wonderful fact that God actually makes the grass grow :)

so pretty...

I'm sure I'll need to back up a bit here and explain what I mean, but first I want to describe a little bit of the kind of day I had before the party, and even a bit of my attitude all week. You see, I'm pretty sure that the devil was trying to prevent me from going to the party. In the two weeks leading up to last night, I had to arrange to get a ride to the party, figure out what I wanted to make/take for the birthday girl, and dig up a few items for an "accessory exchange" (awesome idea for a party, honestly! I scored the cutest purse :D). It doesn't seem like all that would be hard to do, especially in two weeks, right? I find it incredible how small and sneaky the enemy is...

Small as in using small things to trip us. Also see: petty, trivial.

To start off with, I knew right away what I was going to make for Danielle, my cousin whose birthday was the main event: I'd been scarf-happy for a few days, very excited about the honey-comb pattern I found, and I had very cute yarn to use to make a squishy, cuddly scarf. I decided not to start working on it for about a week, though, because I was in the middle of another scarf (reasonable enough) and I knew it wouldn't take that long to make (also reasonable, but counting chickens, etc.). Next was the accessories, and I think I hit my first snag here... For a couple of months, we had a pile of things to take to Goodwill, including several purses and hats that would have been great for the exchange. But as it turns out, just a few days before I found out about the party, we finally got around to donating the pile! I had to get creative, but I did manage to pull together a handful of hair clips and belts.

Girly things are actually a lot of fun :D

The next snag was the ride. As I'm sure my few readers know, I still can't drive, so I have to hitch a ride to go anywhere. But like the scarf, this didn't seem to be a problem to me: after all, my sister-in-law (who lives across the hall, lol) was also invited, so after a quick discussion I had my ride. No problem! Well, until you fast-forward a few days... You see, sis-in-law Jenni was recently blessed with a new job, and they called her in to work last night, which I didn't find out until about 24 hours before the party. Not a problem, I completely understand that a new job takes priority, and I was pretty sure I could get my darling husband to take me. Just an accumulation of little things which eventually gets you down.

See, as of about 2 days ago, I had 1/3 of a scarf, the accessories, and a "probably" ride. Not to mention the various little things kept putting me in a bad mood... In fact, I took a day off this last week: I didn't do anything all day, just slept and zoned out on the computer, refusing to do anything else. Not exactly a great way to deal with a bad mood, but in my defense I felt that it was the only way I could avoid saying something I would regret. Ever been in a mood like that, where everything is just incredibly bad, but it's nobody's fault so getting mad at anybody is unfair? I had to explain to my poor Davey that I was extremely mad, but not mad at him. He is so patient with me :)

An image search for "giving up" found this gem.

Alright, so we've come to yesterday now. I've got a long list of things to do, and (sadly) I seem to be a bit weepy. I had to do a load of laundry because the cat put my bra in the litterbox X( and I had big plans for my hair so I wanted to make sure I washed it. The scarf is still only about half done, and I had about 6 hours to manage everything (since I didn't know when I needed to be ready, I just planned to be ready by 5:00). Well, my mood was terrible. I was completely ready to give up and just not go to the party, every time something went wrong. With the encouragement of my sweet husband, I managed to get a grip and get myself ready without too much trouble, although I didn't finish the scarf until halfway through the party itself XD

I didn't look this classy when I was getting read XD

I could go into a lot more detail about the things that went wrong, why I was weepy, etc., but that wasn't really the point of this post. What I'm trying to get at is that I was very, very discouraged, my attitude was bad, and I was given lots of opportunities to throw in the towel and not go to the party; and what I realized in the course of the evening was that God had planned a very nice night for me, including a reminder of His awesome power: He makes the grass grow. Hindsight being what it is, I can of course see now why the devil would want to keep me away!

It was an adorable, girly party! (not a pic from the actual event)

I had a lovely evening with five of the sweetest ladies I've ever met, chatting and laughing and getting to know each other. I felt like a part of the group, even though I'd only met my cousin a couple times before, and knew nobody else. It's truly a blessing for me to feel that way, since I'm used to being the odd one, and almost never feel like I fit in :) But I should get back to that grass... A few years ago, during a one-on-one meeting with one of my Chi Alpha leaders, I had this amazing thought that continues to bless me every time I remember it (which is sadly less frequently than I would like). God makes the grass grow! Seems simple enough, but let me expand on that though: He makes. it. grow. He doesn't, as Frank Peretti says, "set the world spinning and then go out for coffee." 

He's there, every millisecond of every moment of every day ever, guiding and controlling each individual atom and quark exactly where he wants them to go. This is awesome to me! Because, if you think about it, how much more guidance and protection do we have from Him than the grass?? He makes the friggin' grass grow, guys. Every blade in existence has been touched by Him. I'm sure this comes under the same heading as knowing the names of the stars or the number of grains of sand, but my point is the same in any case. He's there, and He's got it all under control, all the time. 
Pretty sweet, guys :)