{"id":1450,"date":"2017-09-18T15:57:58","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T20:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/?p=1450"},"modified":"2017-09-18T16:11:41","modified_gmt":"2017-09-18T21:11:41","slug":"least-a-worse-thing-come-upon-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/2017\/09\/18\/least-a-worse-thing-come-upon-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Least a Worse Thing Come Upon You"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u00a0Lake Worth, FL<\/strong><\/p>\n

We never know what tomorrow holds, but as the old song goes, \u201cI know who holds tomorrow and I know who holds my hand.\u201d<\/em><\/h6>\n
Last week everyone was staring at cell phones, glued to televisions and computers watching the news to see where Irma<\/em> would go and to see how devastating she would be\u2026hitting islands at Category Five strength leaving death and destruction as she went\u2026I was glued to the news as well. Living in the West Palm Beach area I was especially eager to see and know what we should do. I prayed. \u201cLord, do we go or do we stay?\u201d I heard a loud, \u201cGO, GET TO HIGHER GROUND!\u201d Well He didn\u2019t have to tell me twice. I started gathering medicine and important papers, packing clothes and things that I held dear to my heart but only the most important things that I could pack in our car. I loaded it down. We took food and water for the trip and headed to Tallahassee. We stayed on the Turnpike until the traffic got to be to slow then we got off and found another route\u2026normally a seven hour trip it\u00a0turned into sixteen hours. We made it to Bob\u2019s daughter\u2019s house feeling tired but safe. Then we hear the news that Irma<\/em> was going to come to Tallahassee\u2026WHAT?<\/h6>\n
We prayed some more\u2026but we didn\u2019t hear God say to leave and we felt secure in our decision to stay there. It turned out just fine.<\/h6>\n
On our way home we saw trees down along the way\u2026water covered the highway in one spot but we got through it without stalling\u2026all fast food places were closed because there was no power. We took potty breaks at Wal-Mart and Publix grocery stores they seemed the less crowed. The gas stations that had power had long lines and frazzled nerves of people trying to get gas to get back home. Policemen were directing people as they got in the long lines for safety\u2026But right in the middle of the highway as we were driving, a young guy in a little red car decides to come all the way from the right-hand-lane and does a U-turn in front of us as we are driving in the far left hand lane\u2026just so he could pull in front of a person in the gas line\u2026he not only endangered his life but ours as well, it was so close\u2026thank God we all dodged that bullet\u2026<\/h6>\n
We were not able to get gas until ten hours later when we made it to Lake Worth it was eight o\u2019clock at night. We heard that Sonny\u2019s Bar B Q was open so we went there for take-out. They said it would be ten minutes but it was over thirty minutes. We had not eaten any real food all day; my blood sugar was going low\u2026the place was closing and this server looked at us and said, \u201cWhat are they waiting for?\u201d I had, had enough; I looked at her and said, FOOD!<\/h6>\n
Then I went out the door and left Bob to deal with it\u2026I was carrying a large glass of iced tea, I got in the car and set it between my legs. Bob came to the car with the food and as I reached to unlock the door, somehow I squeezed the tea and it all came pouring out all over me, it was so cold in my nether parts I thought I was going to pass out\u2026I got out of the car dripping and\u00a0tossed the remainder of the tea on the ground\u2026then I heard the Holy Spirit say, \u201cYou were wrong, your attitude is wrong and if you think this is bad, you better get yourself right or a worse think will come upon you.\u201d <\/em>I felt horrible all I kept seeing was the face of that poor server asking what we needed. It wasn\u2019t her fault. She had been working hard all day with hungry, tired, irritable people and I had over reacted to her question\u2026God I\u2019m sorry, please forgive me.<\/em><\/h6>\n
We pull into our driveway where a loud generator was blaring next door but we had no power\u2026our windows were boarded up so we called, Bob\u2019s mom, she had electricity and said we could come there. Thank the Lord. What if she had not had AC? What if her power had been out? What if I had not repented?<\/h6>\n
We get there and I was still feeling the effects of the ice tea and I said, \u201cWe\u2019ve been through hell\u2026she said, \u201cWell there are other people a lot worse off<\/em>\u2026\u201d again I got angry \u2026I yelled at Bob and then said, \u201cI\u2019m sorry\u2026I\u2019m tired and wet and going low\u2026I\u2019m just not myself\u2026please forgive me.\u201d<\/em><\/h6>\n
I changed my pants\u2026we ate and everything settled down.<\/h6>\n
But I kept hearing\u2026a worse think could come upon you<\/em>\u2026I kept praying, \u201cLord, help me, I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m really trying\u2026help my attitude to be better\u2026I don\u2019t want anything worse to happen\u2026\u201d<\/h6>\n
God chastens those he loves\u2026I\u2019m not saying God sent the storm, I\u2019m not saying God made my tea spill or made our order take longer, I\u2019m not saying that he caused all the devastation in the Atlantic, all I\u2019m saying is that He will use these things to show us our heart\u2026and if our heart is not right\u2026then we have to change and let him transform us from the inside out. Now, I plan to get a gift card and take it to that server and hope she will accept my apology.<\/h6>\n
We can\u2019t fix everything that has happened over the last week. We can\u2019t bring the dead back to life. We can\u2019t stop suffering\u2026But we can help to rebuild those who are feeling the impact more than what we have. We can be kind and courteous we can be better than we were before. Stop complaining about politics and religion and start showing God\u2019s love to everyone we meet.<\/h6>\n
None of us is perfect\u2026we are all human, with human emotions and physical and spiritual needs…the only thing we can do is humble ourselves, ask for forgiveness when we mess up and be a blessing to others less fortunate than we are.<\/h6>\n
Hard times will come, storms will come, trails and hurts and pain is just a part of life\u2026they will come\u2026<\/h6>\n
You know some of us are sitting watching from a far, I watched Harvey hit Texas and felt awful for all those hit by that storm. It wasn\u2019t a week later I was the one running for safety. I just want to caution you that disaster can come at any time and any place\u2026We can\u2019t live in fear but please be compassionate towards others\u2026show empathy to those in harm\u2019s way\u2026for the grace of God it could be you.<\/h6>\n
Nerves may sizzle, some things we have control over and some we do not. But we do have control over how we respond. Decide right now to have a positive attitude no matter what comes\u2026and everything will be so much better for you. After all you don\u2019t want a worse thing to come on you. I know I don\u2019t.<\/h6>\n
But don\u2019t beat yourself up if you failed through this storm to be as kind as you\u2019d like when confronted with the conflict. Just try to learn from it and do better next time. Because I promise you there will be a next time.<\/h6>\n
I praise God our families are all safe.\u00a0That is the most important thing. Minor inconveniences, those can be fixed and replaced…Life, is so much more important. Please keep praying for the ones who were\u00a0hit by death and property\u00a0loss, no water and no food. Pray for those who are helping in the recovery process. God bless you!<\/h6>\n
~Marla Shaw O\u2019Neill September 18, 2017<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Lake Worth, FL We never know what tomorrow holds, but as the old song goes, \u201cI know who holds tomorrow and I know who holds my hand.\u201d Last week everyone was staring at cell phones, glued to televisions and computers watching the news to see where Irma would go and to see how devastating she…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8aPxH-no","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1450"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1453,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions\/1453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}