We've all heard the expressions: "when it rains, it pours" and "into everyone's life, a little rain must fall." Once, I told a friend about my various problems and asked, "What else is going to happen?" She told me that I should never say that. She explained that an acquaintance of hers had experienced a sequence of problems, and had asked the same question. Shortly thereafter, the woman's mother died. So, I won't be asking that question anymore!

Life is filled with both burdens and blessings, isn't it? Sometimes frustrations and mishaps come all at once.

This week, the plumber spent two hours at our house — fixing a clog, a leak, a semi-stuck faucet, and a funny-sounding toilet. Last week, while running errands, I came home to find a surprise. Molly (one of our cats) had inadvertently knocked a stopper into the laundry room's washtub, while the washing machine ran a load of clothes. As a result, the washtub plugged up, over-filled, and flooded the litter box sitting underneath. What a mess!

We recently purchased airline tickets to Puerto Rico — to join our son and his family. Our connecting flight was to have been in Dallas, but it was cancelled due to the heavy rain. Because it was near July 4th, we couldn't get another flight to suit our needs, and we had to cancel the whole trip. We then went to plan B, and drove to a lovely beach community for a weekend get-away. The bathroom sink was clogged in our hotel room, and there were no other rooms available. At check-out time, they tried to overcharge us for the room and also for a meal that we had not eaten.

My computer's e-mail went on the fritz and it was days before I discovered the problem. Something that I had shut off had turned itself back on again. My laptop computer developed a problem, too — it wouldn't accept its password. Because of this, I couldn't get on the internet or check e-mail messages. I discovered one of my cats (Priscilla) had stepped on the keypad, and had caused the problem.

I was scheduled to sing somewhere and had reconfirmed two days prior to the event. When I arrived, the parking attendant told me that the singer had already arrived. As it turned out, the other singer had shown up on the wrong night ... probably a miscommunication.

Some of these occurrences were frustrating, disappointing and discouraging. However, in the grand scheme of things, they were pretty minor. Actually, they were pretty trivial when compared to the problems going on in our world today, including all of that flooding. A lot of rain has fallen into the lives of so many people — literally and figuratively. When the rainy times and troubles come, let's remember and take comfort in these verses:

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7 NIV).

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28 NIV).

When rainy times come, take comfort!

We know these are pleasant sayings to simply hang on our walls, but they are reassuring messages of God's love because our Father showed His love and care by sending Jesus to share the rainy days and floods of our human lives. So take comfort from heaven's promises!