I teach in a public school. There is an unlikely blessing that you find at a school at the right time of day. A blessing from the girl’s bathroom. I always say a little prayer of thanks when I enter a stall and find a raised toilet seat. I understand, you are wondering how I could consider a raised toilet seat in a girl’s bathroom a blessing. Well, I know it is clean. The wonderful and brave people who clean the school after we all have gone home to our families leave the toilet seats up when they are done cleaning them. So when I find a raised toilet seat, I know it has been freshly cleaned, that is a blessing.
I have wanted to write on this topic for a long time, but the joy of the toilet seat is often forgotten before I have time to sit down and write. I have wondered, how can this joy of the sanitary toilet seat, this special little blessing, be a message to us all? Well, we are like a toilet seat. No offense intended. When we wake up each morning we are fresh and new. With repentance we are wiped clean, sanitized, and ready to face the world. When we open our eyes, we have not made any mistakes. We have a new chance to do things right, to do things with God. Unlike the toilet seat, we have choices in our actions and words (the poor toilet seat doesn’t get to choose anything, it just has to wait for someone else to come in and clean it again).
God has given us free will. That means we get to decide. We decide our words to others, we decide our actions, we decide our reactions. The way our day goes is up to us. We choose to have a good day, we choose to have a bad day. Thing after thing can go wrong (by wrong I mean - not go the way we intend it to go) but the kind of day we have is in how we handle all of these things that ‘go wrong’. The choice of what kind of day we have is in how we greet and speak to others, it is in our attitudes and emotions. What kind of day we have is in who we follow. Are you going to follow the voice that is telling you all the bad and negative things (that is Satan’s voice) or the voice that leads you down God’s path (the Holy Spirit). I can guarantee, no, not me, God can guarantee that if you follow the Holy Spirit's voice, that you will have peace! God says it over and over in His Word.
Isaiah 54:10
For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then my faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken.” says the Lord who has mercy on you.
Psalm 85:8
I listen carefully to what the Lord is saying, for He speaks peace to his faithful people. But let them not return to their foolish ways.
Psalm 29:11
The Lord gives His people strength, He blesses them with peace.
Isaiah 26:12
Lord, you will grant us peace; all we have accomplished is really from you.
John 16:33
I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, for I have overcome the world.
John 14:27
I am leaving you with a gift - peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.
We also must remember that when we think things have ‘gone wrong’, those ‘wrong’ things may just be leading us to something greater. We tend to think that when something doesn’t follow our plan that it ‘went wrong’. Our plan is not God’s plan. We need to face everything that has ‘gone wrong’ with a positive attitude and listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Only God knows where he will lead us!
Sometimes I head to the restroom at lunch and still, once in a while, chance on to a seat that is still up. We don’t have to rely on chance. We can rely on the Holy Spirit to remain clean and fresh and at peace all day long! We can also choose to recognize and acknowledge our sin or mistakes, repent, and be sanitized, and start anew. ANYTIME ANYWHERE. We don’t have to wait for Jesus to come along and choose to scrub us down, he will come whenever we ask. Whenever we call out to him he will arrive with his scrub brush and sanitizer. The Holy Spirit will guide our reactions and actions and words if we let him, and if we are listening for him. God has allowed us to choose the kind of day we have through our choices. What choices are you going to make?
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