"Oh Laundry Machine, it's not you, it's me!"

Yesterday, I was going crazy with the laundry machine here at our apartment complex. My quarter got stuck in the slot and as much as I shook and hit the machine, it would not let the quarter in or out. Minor thing, right? But it was one of the last quarters I had left, so I was a little frustrated with the machine, especially since it had already swallowed my first quarter. I had no option than to walk back in the Texas heat to my apartment and hunt for another quarter. Could not find one! I was dreading having to go to the bank and make quarters. So I decided to grab my tweezers and walk back down to the laundry room and try to pull the quarter out. With a tight grip and pull, I managed to get the quarter out. Success! Then I figured, I'll simply try another machine. I began slipping the quarters in the slot, one by one and then after it swallowed two quarters, one got stuck again. Same way as the first. "WHAT THE HECK is wrong with these annoying machines!!!!," I thought, with great passion and frustration in the thought. How could both machines make my quarters get stuck?!?! I was so frustrated by now. So I pulled the quarter out again and began to realize something. I had a thick quarter that was somehow contorted on one edge. Wow, I felt silly. I quickly realized, with a weird feeling in my brain, that it wasn't the machines that were messing up, it was my quarter! Well, after the heavens opened, I realized I still needed this quarter to avoid going out to get more, so with my tweezers and some effort, I shoved it in the slot and finally was able to start the load. Success!!

The event was silly and small but it managed to frustrate me until I found out something on my behalf was the problem. Quickly, I began to think how sometimes we get so frustrated with the crazy circumstances we're sometimes in. One can think, "Oh I have all the bad luck," or "God is just being mean to me." We think there is something wrong with life, with people, with the machine. We don't stop and realize sometimes that the problem could simply be coming from us or we might be the one making it worse. Our perspective could be twisted and contorted, our attitude could be the wrong one, or even our own actions and words might be making the situation worse.

Ask yourself: What's frustrating me lately? Do I think that maybe I could be the problem? Also, what is keeping me from coming closer to God or from having a deeper relationship with him? Do we think we might be the ones holding ourselves back? Instead of thinking there is something wrong with God and his word, could it be there is something wrong coming from us? Just like my quarter? I pray and encourage us all to find out what might be holding us back, or what is the real cause of our frustrations today, that we may move forward out of our frustration to where God wants us to be.