I am always in awe when I see how my God works in our lives and how He takes all kinds of situations to mold us into who He desires us to be.  Case and point:
My husband has been under a great deal of stress with family issues and in his job.  His feeling of helplessness to change the situation has led to the frustration in his life spilling over into our basic family life.  After having an exceptionally trying week last week there was an incident that could have made him blow his top.  He had just begun to mow the lawn while my son was weed-whacking, when all of a sudden, BANG, BANG, BANG! I was inside doing laundry when I heard the racket. I thought he had run over something the dogs or kids had left out hidden in the grass and it had got caught up in the blades.  My daughter and I went down to see what had happened.  He hadn’t run something over.  The motor had caused all that noise.  It had a huge crack across the front of the engine and smoke and oil was pouring out of it.  We had this lawn tractor for only about 8 years and I was sure that he was going to be upset.  But when I looked at him there was a peace about him.  After evaluating the situation and pronouncing the thing officially dead, I took my cue from his reaction and I began to ‘sing’ taps.  He took his cap off, placed it over his heart and just smiled.  There we were in the backyard, paying our last respects to this lawn tractor.  As crazy as it was, it kept the situation in perspective.  Ok, so now the grass will stay tall for a while until we can replace the thing.  No big deal. The dogs love to play hide and seek in it. And, yes, those things aren’t cheap.  But what I took away from it was the example he had set for our children.  No matter what life throws you, God is in control.  It will do no good to throw a fit and rant and rave over things that just happen.  It is what it is and it is what you make of it.  In that moment of silliness I saw God working in my husband and it was awesome.