Have you ever heard the saying, "Praise the Lord, anyway?" There are many disturbing surprises in life that make that saying really important. We recently had a well drilled. They had to go down 900 feet. The expense was much higher than we expected and the water volume was much lower than we had hoped for. We did our best to "Praise the Lord anyway."

My Mom came to see us from out of state. She is 84. She realized after the first day that she forgot her pain medication. She has a really bad back and usually has a lot of pain to deal with. We tried to get her medicine, but after many attempts, since we were in a different state, we realized we couldn't. She did her best to "Praise the Lord anyway."

The last two nights Mom was staying with us, she didn't sleep much. On the way to the airport, she was in considerable pain, and was lying down in our back seat. If you listened closely, you could hear her singing. "Ah Lord God Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power. Ah Lord God Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for Thee, nothing is too difficult for Thee. Great and mighty God, great in counsel and mighty in deed, mighty in deed. Nothing, nothing absolutely nothing, nothing is too difficult for Thee." She was doing her best to "Praise the Lord, anyway."

That night she called at about 10:30 pm. She wanted me to know how much she enjoyed being with us, and how much she enjoyed the trip. For an 84 year old woman who has severe back pain, uses a walker, and had been traveling all day, to say that, she was "Praising the Lord, anyway."

Life throws us a lot of curve balls!
I have heard that John and Charles Wesley were traveling by boat across the Atlantic when a terrible storm came upon them. They were amazed as a group of Moravian believers gathered together and began to worship. This group was "Praising the Lord, anyway."

Life throws us a lot of curve balls, but we can "Praise the Lord, anyway." As the apostle Paul reminds a group of young Christians in Thessalonica, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).