Hi,
I failed today. Miserably. I was hurting badly... family member in danger and job was in danger and I was exhausted anyway. So I did what one normally do in such situations... I sent a quick "prayer if you have a minute" message to 13. And then I prayed for wisdom and took a breath and started trying to write all my bosses back. Like clock work the message came back they were praying. I finished wading through the sludge of emails that bombard me every weekday morning to find the ones from 10pm on a Sunday night. I responded to said messages and crossed my fingers while waiting for a response that said "you still have a job to come to tomorrow."
So naturally I did the next thing one always does in said situation - I messaged friend back while waiting. And then it started spiraling down hill. At best their replies were sarcastically inappropriate; at worst they were scathingly rough. Finally, I got mad, gave up arguing, and just said I didn't need that now.
Looking back, I see a series of things I did wrong. So here they are so hopefully no one else will do the same thing:
1. Ask for prayer and then shut up. When you're wound up anyway, it's a lot easier to say things you'll regret later.
2. Don't communicate via text. It's hard to explain anything of importance over a keyboard or phone screen. It's hard to communicate a bunch of details, which often leads to serious misunderstandings. As in this morning - major life things were happening and it got communicated as simple whining.
3. Don't ever expect your friends to "fix" it. Only God can give the balm that heals all wounds. Only God can fix the unfixable, make the ugly beautiful, and provide for everything when the world falls apart.
