Another Point of View

 

I was frustrated yesterday for the third time this week.  Let me explain.  I work on four exercise machines at cardiac rehab, and the hardest of the four is the rowing machine.  And because of that, I dread the rowing machine.  I do the stationary bicycle to warm up and then go to the feared rowing machine to get it out of the way.  (At suppertime, I used to tell my children, “The last the best, the first the worst”.)  But every day this past week, some little person used my rowing machine and changed the settings.  They tightened the foot straps and shortened the tread to fit their little feet.  So I had to handle that nasty foot tread to move it back to the second hole and loosen the straps so that my size eleven feet could get into the straps.  It frustrated me to no end!  But Friday, on the way home, I realized that the little person must have been frustrated three times this week too!  They got onto “their” rowing machine and had to tighten the straps and shorten the tread because some big oaf had changed their settings!  Hey, it’s all in your perspective; it’s how you view things.  I’m so glad that the dear Lord is patient with me!  I’m glad that God is not frustrated when I fail again and again!  God loves me and gives me a second chance, and a third, and a fourth and …  II Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”  Hey, the Lord doesn’t just let me slide; God doesn’t look the other way when I sin; God sent His dear Son, Jesus Christ to pay for my sins!  I am forgiven and redeemed!  Praise the Lord!  And since God has forgiven me, I need to be a little more forgiving towards some little person who uses “my” rowing machine at cardiac rehab.