Trusting God With The Little Things

Lily "flying" with her bear

So lately I feel like God has been asking me to trust Him more with the little things (instead of just always trying to figure it out on my own). He gave me plenty of opportunity to practice this on our flight home from Florida.

The morning seemed to be moving smoothly and we got out of our hotel and off to the airport much earlier than Joe thought we would. Like I said, everything was going smoothly...until we got to the airport. First, there was nowhere to park our rental car- literally every space from our car rental company was filled. After driving around, frustrated, we finally just parked in back of another rental car and decided to let the company figure it out (they did). We thought we were still doing well on time, but that's because we didn't anticipate the HUGE line to check our baggage. When we finally got to the counter the lady informed us that we didn't have much time (which we were very well aware of)!

Next was going through security. After Sept 11th I swore I would never complain about security- and I'm not really, but what happened here was frustrating (even if it was somewhat my fault). First let me say that our little family is a disaster going through airport security- shoes, coats, diaper bag, stroller, camera bag, and what seems like hundreds of other things of ours spilling out the other end as we try to wrangle our way through. This time it was worse. I didn't realize until we were at the airport in Maine (on our flight out) that my driver's license had expired. So this time the aiport security flagged me for an extra screening. So now in a rush Joe is left to try to recover all of our stuff and take care of Lily while security also tries to rangle me and all my personal belongings for extra screening (made even more confusing by the fact that the original security person didn't catch that I was flagged- which seemed to fluster everyone there). Now even more pressed for time I passed my screening and we rushed off to our gate (where we walked right onto our plane).

Unfortunately, however, our seats weren't together. The flight attendant said that the plane was full and that we could try to ask the people sitting next to us to switch seats. So, with Joe one row ahead of us, Lily on my lap, and two empty seats next to me I waited hopefully. Until...a nice gentleman and his daughter came to sit next to us. I obviously couldn't ask the man to leave his daughter. Immediately I began to worry- especially since Lily was already asking for daddy. And then the very nice, but rather large gentleman sat right in the middle next to Lily and I. Let's face it, these seats are small to begin with, but with this man spilling over into my seat Lily and I were beyond squished. So here I am faced with the prospect of a 3 hour flight, by myself, with my toddler on my lap (and she's already kicked the man next to me many times). So yes, I began to mildly panic. I was angry. There were almost tears. I quietly leaned up into Joe's seat and said in my angry/panic voice, "This is not going to work." I think he pretended to ignore me. So I sat back down and just prayed. And very clearly felt like the Lord was asking me to let HIM take care of it. So I sat there praying, doing my very best to trust God for this little thing (which felt big at the time). And you know what? Slowly I began to feel peace- not that it would all work out my way, but that no matter what He would take care of us (even if it meant a very long flight home). After some time the flight attendant came over to tell us that everyone had boarded and that there happened to be two empty seats next to each other right next to us. I can't even tell you how big my smile was. And then...the very nice gentleman sitting next to me offered for him and his daughter to move over to those seats so that Joe, Lily, and I could have 3 seats all together!!! What started out as a very bad situation suddenly turned into a situation better than we could have hoped for! And do you know what felt even better? Knowing that I was able to trust God for this little thing (and that despite my initial frustration I was able to give it over to Him).

This lesson would be played out again just 30 minutes later when we realized (as Lily was asking for Nemo) that airport security had taken our portable DVD player out of our diaper bag (without us knowing) and that we had unknowingly left it at the airport! For a few minutes I did worry- about how we would get through the flight (since Lily had already read every book we brought), about how we would get the money to buy a new DVD player, and about replacing the Care Bears movie left inside it (which happens to be Lily's favorite). And then I remembered about how God had taken care of us earlier- and so once again I did the best I could to relax and just trust God once again with this little thing. And do you know what? Of course we got through the flight and Lily did just fine (with lots of snacks)! And two days later when Joe called the aiport in Florida they informed us right away (no hassles or run around at all) that they did have our DVD player (and the movie). It is already back home safely.

So okay, this is a long story and whether or not you are interested I wanted to write it out for myself so that the next time I might better be able to remember how God has taken care of us. Maybe one day my first reaction won't be worry, panic, anger, or frustration but instead just simply trust.