We All Need A Kick

One of my favorite children's books is Judith Viorst's Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day.  The main character of the book, Alexander, has the worst day possible.  His marble goes down the drain during his bath and the cat doesn't want to sleep with him, so all throughout the day he tells everyone within earshot that he's going to move to Australia.  It doesn't help that his mother fixes lima beans for dinner (Let's face it . . . Those are gross!) and there's kissing on the television.  But when his mother tucks him in at night, she lets him know that even in Australia, there are terrible, horrible, no-good very bad days.

True.  We all have those days, and whenever we have them, it seems like we want to shout, "Excuse me, God, I haven't recuperated from the last one!"  But you know, He could tell us, "Ahem!  You want to hear about my day?"

Everytime we have a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day we always run into someone else whose day has been rougher.  I call it a 'kick in the butt from God.'  We all need these kicks and get them whether we know it or not.  I heard a story of an entertainer whose name escapes me at the moment.  He was doing a benefit on the condition that he come on first as he needed to be able to make his radio show.  Well, he stayed on and on and by the time he left, his radio show had already started.  He'd missed the performance that he'd contracted for, although they'd tried to get him off the stage for a long, long time.  When he exited, he pointed to two soldiers in the front row.  One had lost his left arm, the other his right.  Together, they were bringing their hands together to applaud.  As long as they were doing that, he wasn't going to leave the stage.  A gentle 'kick in the butt from God', showing that entertainer what was truly important, and one he never forgot.

So when you tell yourself that it can't get any worse, remember . . . it probably can.  And someone else is more than likely experiencing it as you wonder.