Well, It Could Be Worse

No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 1 Thess. 5:18

After my husband was killed and my four young daughters and I were left with a 16-acre farm to run, we often experienced trying circumstances. A pipe would spring a leak at 10 p.m., and I’d have to go running down to the dirt road with a flashlight in my pajamas and robe to find the box where the water shut-off valve was located, stick my hand in the hole where black widows and scorpions made their home, and try and shut off the water without getting stung.

Or a thunderstorm with high winds would rip the gate out of my hands and off the hinges when we were trying to bring the horses in, and we’d have horses running wild and in danger of running off and being injured while the lightning flashed, the thunder crashed and we were screaming to each other to be heard. Or a swarm of locusts, similar to those described in the plagues in the Bible, would descend on the farm, eating every blade of grass, every leaf off the trees and covering every square inch of the house and the fields. And those are only a few of the things we dealt with.

Coming to our aid time and again were some neighbors who lived down the road. They were professional polo players and had plenty of work of their own with the horses they rode, trained, played and sold. But, whenever I needed help, they would come up and do what they could. Invariably, in the middle of my frustration, Kathy would observe, “Well, it could be worse ….”

The first couple times she said that, it stopped me dead in my tracks. Here we were in the middle of a catastrophe … whether it was fences down, horses out, no water, no hay crop, hay barn burned down, etc. I thought, “What, are you nuts?” But, then, it made me think. She was right. No matter what was happening right then, it really could be worse … there was always a worse that we’d been spared from. It totally changed my thinking.

When I was diagnosed with Stage 3, aggressive, breast cancer two and a half years after I lost my husband, even though it wasn’t what I was expecting, even though it was a scary diagnosis to receive, even though I wondered what would happen now and how I could take care of the girls, keep on working at my job, keep on running the farm, keep on driving the 84 miles to work and back each day, keep on keeping on, another thought also came to mind … well, it could be worse.

And that gave me a different perspective on my life and how to deal with it. I could be grateful and appreciative that it wasn’t worse. I could adapt to the changing circumstances and think about what I could positively do to get through this and on to something better. I could see myself as stronger than the enemy I was facing, and I could be grateful for who I was becoming through the trials – in my mind, my character, my resolve, the things I was learning. I could be grateful that God was there with me through it all, and I was seeing more of Him and how big, great and faithful He was than I ever would have with no trials, no reliance on Him.

Whatever you’re going through right now, maybe it will help you like it did me to remember … it could be worse. So, give thanks. Ask God to somehow bring good out of whatever you’re up against, and let the circumstances drive you to greater faith and transform you into better, stronger and more capable of dealing with the difficulties of life than you would have been if you’d never experienced them.

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