My 33 year old daughter, Lisa, and her 3 children and I share an apartment. "Share" is the operative word -- and it actually works beautifully for us at this point in our lives. Right now I am the only one with a car. Lisa has a friend, Carli, who is pretty much a "taker". Although she and her boyfriend have vehicles, she constantly calls Lisa to give her rides, pick her up, etc. The first weekend in June, Lisa mentioned she had been invited to Carli's daughter's house for some type of party and asked if there was any problem with her going (she always asks if she is planning on leaving the kids with me). I was in the middle of producing a video, plus big deadlines of working and saw no problem - however, I did not fully understand exactly what she was talking about until "D Day". I was waiting to meet the audio guy to pick up the wav file for the video that was due 3 days later. Lisa comes in at 4 pm and says, "I'm going". "Where, I asked?". "To Corsicana - remember?" I had not realized that she was planning on taking my car -- to a town that is 1-1/2 hours away and certainly not that early in the day. Because I had to go meet the audio guy - there was no other option than to tell her there was no way she could take the car. I felt really bad about it.

Carli pitched a huge fit - even going to our boss (we contract for the same company) and ranting about Lisa ruining her relationship with her daughter for missing the Tupperware party. My boss sided with Carli saying that Lisa made a commitment and failed to follow through and she would have been mad too. I kept insisting that it was NOT Lisa's fault - she had done everything she knew to do - if anyone was to be blamed, it should be me. No one cared to remember that Carli knew when she asked that Lisa did not have a car of her own!

Carli calls yesterday, wanting Lisa to drive her to Corsiciana to take one of her puppies to the vet (it has Parvo). She did not want to drive her own truck cause the a/c is out. I said "NO WAY!" After my outburst, Lisa and I talked about the situation. A little voice seemed to very gently whisper, "There is not a problem with you not letting Lisa take your car to drive Carli to Corsiciana -- but you need to examine your attitude for saying no."

That seems to be one of the things I find myself trying to keep a very close watch over -- my attitude. I believe that God is not as concerned with what we do or what we say -- as much as WHY and our attitude. If I allow the seed of bitterness to slip beneath the soil of my soul and grow roots - it will spread to all other areas of my life. Maybe one day I will grow comfortable with the concept that I do not have to say YES to every request that comes my way.

Maybe.