It was just a can opener. But it was a Kitchen Aid can opener, supposed to be good quality and last for years, and I couldn’t get it to work! (You have one, too, don’t you? I knew it.)

Supper time…Wednesday night. Church in 2 hours.

It was the icing on the cupcake of a day’s life:

*A pull-up in the washer. Thousands of tiny gel beads lacing our garments. Shake them out and only half the beads come off, onto the floor. Two more washings that I wasn’t planning on doing.

*A neighbor’s dog breaks into the garbage and spreads it to the next continent.

*Two glasses of water spilled under the couch. (You’d think after spilling the first one, I’d be able to avoid the second one!) At least it wasn’t grape juice.

*Car balks at starting. Same problem. Put the key in the second spot, shift the gear into neutral and it starts. So weird.

*Persistent headache that wants to live with me…forever. Why won’t it go away? I wasn’t planning on single-handedly supporting the Advil company.

*Candle holder falls over and puts a gash in my wooden/wicker drawer chest. It’s the only piece of furniture we’ve ever bought new.

*Blackberry playbook camera goes on the blink. Phone call for support would go well…if I could understand the person on the other end. It would go even better if he could understand me.

*Small Son’s school DVD won’t play. It’s the DVD player acting up again, kicking in the TV guardian when I don’t need it. I follow the directions 2, 3, 4, 5 times and it still won’t work. I plunk down the remote. Small Son cheers when he realizes the implications.

These are our days, aren’t they? A thousand things interrupting what we think should be normal day.

Do you ever wonder WHY some days seem to be magnets for a myriad of ‘bad things?’ I know it’s because God allows it. But do you ever wonder WHY and HOW physically, scientifically, geometrically, gravitationally (and every other big word that ends with “ally”) it is even possible for all of those things to go wrong?! Why does it seem almost easier at times to handle the big stresses in our lives than it does a string of little ones?

I remember getting the news that our first baby might not make it. Then the news that I was close to death. Had I waited even one more hour to get to the hospital, the nurse said, and I may not be alive. Then the multiple hospitalizations…the months in bed. The huge hospital bills. The enormous medication costs. The long-term physical repercussions.

People have said to me “I don’t know how you got through that.” The truth? I don’t know either. But I know there was grace. When big trials come, we sense God’s presence. He gives abundant grace and we cope.

We grow leaps and bounds spiritually if we respond the right way.

Why do we so easily forget that the same grace is available for the little things that add up? It’s there for the nothings that shouldn’t even bother us, but that pile up and challenge our consistency in having Godly reactions.

Even while I’m twisting and thumping my can opener on the counter and hoping that it will magically assume a working status, I FEEL the pull of my God’s whisper “Ask me for grace. Acknowledge Me.”

Sometimes I do. Stop and ask for grace. Sometimes I just. don’t.

You know what amazed me as I pondered this? Satan used this tactic with Christ! He came not once, not twice, but three times to Christ in the wilderness with little, ‘pestery’ things like “turn these rocks to stone and eat.” Or “fall down and worship me.” How about “jump off this mountain and show us that you can live through it.”

Of course Christ was not going to fall for the temptation. But consider Satan’s tactic. He was trying to chip away at Christ’s endurance.

And he does it in our lives today. (Every day?) He starts chipping away at our endurance until we are weak. He convinces us that what is happening to us right now is the worst possible thing that could befall us, and that we can’t take another thing going wrong. Without thinking, we respond the wrong way.

We mutter about Murphy’s Law being in full swing and our children hear our exasperated sighs.

Later when the little things have been solved and life returns to the normal we are always grasping for (when will we learn that it’s only temporary?), we know we’ve blown it again. We’ve ignored grace. Again.

The good news? Every moment is a fresh, renewed chance to live by grace, through faith. Let’s embrace the grace for little things and watch how it changes our lives!

I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you that my wonderful husband came into the kitchen and tried his hand at the can opener.

It worked for him.