Enjoying the Prepositions of Life

I've been having one of those incredibly busy weeks where it seems as though I am caught in this whirlwind of problems, complaints, and unnecessary drama. Yes, it's been one of those weeks of feeling like I can't win, despite my best efforts, and there are too few hours in the day to accomplish everything on my list to please anyone, including myself.

It's one of those times where I want to give in and raise a white flag of surrender to all the forces that seem to be defeating me, but I can't find a flag anywhere and there's no one in Walmart to direct me to the white flag aisle. And then I think about this blog and what I might write about and I have nothing.

Well I could write about something but it would probably cause more problems, complaints, and unnecessary drama and as much as I like those things (that was sarcasm) my quota is full and overflowing. So I thought I would pass on writing something fresh and instead utilize the right click button of my mouse and "copy and paste" an old excerpt from a blog I wrote in a couple of years ago for our church women's ministry. I pull up the website and read my own words from two years ago:  

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

This morning on my way to work, I began thinking about prepositions.  Don’t ask me how prepositions come to a person’s thought process in car line at 7:20 in the morning, but for some reason they did.  If you recall from middle school, prepositions are a linking word that relates the words in a sentence to each other.  Teachers always helped us remember what they were by thinking of a log, “anything you can do to a log is a preposition”.  They are the words like; above, below, in, off, over, through, under and upon.  Being a driven and goal oriented person, I have always defined milestones with accomplishments and reached goals.  I began thinking how in my life, I have always focused on the log, as an obstacle or event.  I have been so caught up with getting past the “logs”, that I have failed to enjoy the prepositions.  I have failed to enjoy the moments under the log or going through the log, when these are the moments that have been the key times of shaping, growing and learning in my life.  In reality, these prepositional times have been the actual milestones of God making me the person I am now.  While goals are great at keeping us focused on moving ahead, I think I am going to take a few extra moments along the way to stop complaining about the time, effort, and hardships and to really reflect on what the preposition is there for.  Maybe there is a sifting inside of me, a lesson to be learned, or a relationship along the way that He wants to work on.  Let me encourage you, as I encourage myself, when you see a log in front of you, enjoy the preposition.

Wow, did you just hear that? I think I just experienced the sci-fi theory of time travel and slapped myself in the face from two years ago. I'm currently going through things that I want to be through with and then I read my words reminding me to "enjoy the preposition"? I am not enjoying my "log" moment here. Honestly, I want to cut the log up into a bunch of pieces, set it on fire and roast marshmallows over it knowing the log is over and done with and I will never have to see the log again. At least in that scenario I could enjoy the rich chocolate and gooey marshmallow of a 'smore or two provided by the fire of the said log.

Sadly, there will be no bonfires today. Some logs are just harder than others. Instead of going through or over them, sometimes I feel like I am the preposition beneath the log and straining to get out from under it's weight.  Sometimes when we get through the log we find a couple of evidential splinters that take even more time and effort to remove and protect ourselves from impending infection. 

With the sting of the slap of my words still in my mind, I am going to try to enjoy my preposition. I'm not happy about it, I still want the log gone, but I am hopeful. Knowing that I'm going to be a better person because of it is much more inspiring that thinking the problems will never end, right? So it's all about the focus of my vision and I'm going to try to see the "shaping, growing and learning" that is happening to me during this preposition. So now, as I arm myself with tweezers and a few band aids in preparation for any splinters, I encourage you as I continually have to encourage myself to "enjoy the preposition."