Spiders

I had an exciting adventure today. What I mean by "exciting" is: absolutely terrifying, life-threatening, horrifying, and heart-stopping. What was my exciting adventure exactly? Well, let me tell you! It began with me driving to Starbucks. I was going to have a relaxing drive, full of music that made me feel like I was in an Indie Film. It was going to be simple and peaceful. Too bad it was anything but peaceful! Instead of having a nice drive, it was ruined by a spider. Yes, a spider. A stupid, little (scary) spider. In case you don't already know, spiders are my worst fear. I hate spiders more than anything else. So when this little spider crawled up on my window (right by my face, might I add), I pretty much freaked out. I screamed and tried to put quite the amount of distance between myself and this "terrifying" spider. Instead of rolling my window down or pulling over on the side of the road to get the spider out of my car like a normal person would've done, I kept driving. I thought maybe he could just stay put or move somewhere else, at least till I got to Starbucks, which was only five minutes away. But this spider had other plans. Instead of staying put like he was supposed to, he sprang at me! You can imagine my terror, I'm sure. I screamed, nearly jumped out of my seat and swerved the car. I know, I know... What was I thinking?! I could've gotten myself or someone else killed! Thankfully for me, there were no other cars on the road I was on, and also, the spider didn't land on me. Crisis avoided!

But, avoiding a spider and acting crazy isn't the moral of my story. I can't just walk away from something like that and only think to myself: "Well, next time I'll make sure to just pull over!" That's much too easy, wouldn't you agree? The moral of the story is not looking at something small, and letting it run your life. I looked at the spider and let it effect the way I drove and the way I was acting in that situation. Sometimes I think we do that in life, too. I think that something small happens - someone acts out of context, we lose our cool, our boss does something we don't approve of, our leader decides to make a choice that we don't fully agree with, or we have a small issue with the way people are doing things - and we take it to the next level. We let it affect how we act, how we appear and how we talk. We let something small take over our lives and rule the way we live.

Maybe you've had something like that happen to you before? Have you ever been in a situation that isn't very serious, but you allow it to blow out of proportion? I can assure you that it happens to all of us, and I have allowed moments that aren't very bad to get a hold of me and drag me down, even though it was really little and not all that important. Your moment that you let rule your life, is your "spider", so to speak. Instead of dragging your mind away from the situation (smacking the spider away) or asking God to help you with it (rolling your window down), you fall head first into a disaster that you helped create (swerving the car).

Did you know that God places bad things in our life sometimes, and that sometimes He also places those little insignificant moments that we sometimes blow out of proportion? Yep, sometimes that's God, and He does it for a reason. My best advice would be to look towards God in all of these times. Instead of allowing your emotions or thoughts or opinions jump out of you, turn to God. Pray that He would take hold of you and help you not allow that moment to expand into something it wasn't to begin with. Don't let satan use your emotions or words to turn your back on God and disobey Him. The Bible says,

And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. - Colossians 3:15

Did you just read that correctly, my dear friend? It says that we need to let the peace that comes from God rule in our hearts. This means allowing God to rule over us and our hearts instead of nonsensical situations or silly moments. Not only that, but the verse calls us to be peaceful with the ones we are around. In other words, people that can sometimes help create those situations don't need to be yelled at or told how wrong they are; they need to be excepted. And finally, I think the last part of that verse is pretty self-explanatory.

Always be thankful, even for the spiders.