When poop hits the mower blades

Shane and I have a rather large yard.  It takes a good two hours or more to mow, but I love it.  For whatever reason, I love mowing our yard. I welcome the time to sit on the mower and drive around the yard with just my thoughts....no TV, no phone, and usually no interruptions.  As I go around the yard, I see rabbits, an occasional stray cat off in the brush and a couple of field mice scurrying off to the field.

Nothing ruins this time of peace and introspection like the smell of dog poop.  We have two German Shepherds and I love them dearly....I don't, however, love the "presents" they leave in my yard, but what are you gonna do?

I try my hardest to avoid the poop, but it never fails.....it is bound to find the mower blades.  And there is just something undeniable about it....when the poop hits the blades. 

I know the analogy might be crass, but isn't that like life?  Poop happens (meaning the "not so aromatic" times of life) and sometimes, it hits the blades (meaning it gets messy).

The question is, how do you handle it....when the poop hits the blades? Better question is.....how do you handle it when it messes all over you and your spouse? No matter how long you've been married, dating, engaged.....or even when it comes to being a parent, relationships get messy and sometimes it stinks.

Tough times, disappointments, hardships, even arguments and disagreements....you know the "poop" that happens.  How do we come out smelling like a rose when it gets really bad?
Let me share a personal story....

Shane and I had been married about 7 years. I was experiencing a lot of dissatisfaction in my personal life.  I wasn't happy in my job, wasn't happy with myself and was feeling a bit restless.  On top of that, Shane and I were in a load of poop when it came to our finances.  The icing on the cake, well...poop, was that Shane didn't know we were in a drastic state of financial affairs.  We were about to lose our home, every time I flipped a light switch I was praying that the electricity hadn't been shut off, and I was dodging collection phone calls and bill notices like a ninja.

We had found ourselves in this financial pinch because of my negligence in paying bills and budgeting money...that is a whole other post.  Just know that I was really, really bad at handling our finances. 

The pressures with my job, the stress of our finances and our extremely busy social life was wearing me thin.  At the time I didn't realize what I was feeling was the weight of it all....I thought something more external was wrong. 

After changing jobs, starting a business, creating a 100 and 1 budget plans, reading a million books, restructuring my community involvement....nothing changed.  I still felt like poop!  It never occured to me that what I needed to do was come clean with Shane about our finances and get my priorities straight.  My solution was to leave him.

For whatever reason, I saw Shane as the cause of my dissatisfaction.  After I had changed everything else without the result I was looking for, I somehow came to believe that Shane was the reason for all my troubles.  I moved out of our house and into an apartment....it was only for a few months, but it was a long and dark few months.

At the end of those months, I had a lot of poop on my face, metaphorically speaking.  I had hurt so many people....including the man I truly loved.  What happened next was a pure miracle.  God orchestrated a reconciliation of biblical proportions, but not until He held up a mirror and made me take a good look at what a mess I was.

God took the financial ruin that I had created and held me responsible for it. My negligence cost me 45 days in jail and three months on house arrest.  Because of that and the financial state we were in, Shane lost his business, I lost my job, we were forced to file bankruptcy, we lost our home and one of our cars.  We gave up our cell phones, our credit cards, our socially active life and went into serious survival mode.

But in the midst of the poop, God was working on our hearts...to bind us together, to create forgiveness, to foster an atmosphere of love once again.
In those years of rebuilding, we found that when the poop flies....we can hang on to each other, get through anything together, walk hand in hand and sometimes, fall on our knees together in prayer.

So how do we handle it when the poop hits the blades? Take a real look at the situation....when you are covered in poop, regardless of it being your fault or not, you are humbled....pride melts away, because let's be honest, no one looks good covered in poop. 

If we are willing to let the tough times in life be the stuff that sharpens us, we can make it through anything.  As a wife, I am stronger with my husband by my side.  We both might be covered in poop, but we are covered in poop together. ....I think that was in the first rendition of the marriage vow.