surrendering to the seat warmer...day 3

Some days surrender begins earlier in the day than others.  

Sometimes surrender means giving up what I want for the good of someone else.

And, occasionally I get it right.

The flu bug hit fast and hard yesterday.  By the time we were half way finished with our church service I was melting.  Fever, achy joints, sore throat, headache... all classic flu symptoms.  My personal nurse (I highly recommend that everyone have a personal nurse) volunteered to drive me home before church was finished and I took him up on that offer.  I spent the rest of Sunday alternating between sleeping and being wrapped up in a blanket watching NFL.  Aside from the pain and malaise, it's not a bad way to spend a Sunday.  I wrongly assumed that one day down and I'd be up and at them today.


Needless to say, today was not a good day to oversleep and miss the bus.  Especially considering that I had to share my personal nurse with the hospital today.  His last words to me before he left for work, "Goodbye.  I love you.  And, Eric just got up."  


Ugh!


Some days the opportunity to surrender begins earlier in the day than others. Today my first opportunity to surrender came at 6:54 a.m.  Maybe it was because my throat hurt too badly to do any loud complaining or perhaps because I was still semi-comatose, either way I quietly surrendered to Eric's need and got dressed.  We were out the door in 10 minutes, me with a warmed up cup of coffee and my seat warmer on; and Eric with a bad start to his Monday.


It's been said that life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond.  I wish I could have articulated this to Eric this morning.  I know his response... it's my typical response.  Rather than surrender to One who knows the plans He has for me, I tend to fight back.  I guess after 42 years, I'm learning that it is in my attitude toward life that I struggle with surrender the most.  


To quote Rich Mullins...

Surrender don't come natural to me

I'd rather fight You for something

I don't really want

Than to take what You give that I need

And I've beat my head against so many walls

Now I'm falling down, I'm falling on my knees

So, this morning, I found myself giving up what I wanted for the good of someone else and with my lukewarm cup of coffee and my seat warmer on, I prayed for the boy to learn surrender easier than his mother has.