Yesterday, there was a heavy downpour after lunch.  It was quite sudden here in Meycauayan.  One minute the sun was so hot and the air so humid, the next minute, cool air suddenly wafted, the sky became overcast and heavy rain poured for 30 minutes.

My daughter left school when the sun was still shining.  As she was walking out of the school gate, the rain poured.  She unzipped her backpack to get her umbrella but, she had left it in her locker in school.

She decided to take a tricycle to the terminal instead of walking so that she won’t get any wetter.  She was charged P8 for the ride but when the tricycle driver saw that she was all alone, he told her to get down from the tricycle because he wasn’t going to go as far as the jeepney terminal for only one passenger in the pouring rain.

So my daughter walked all by herself in the rain.  Her uniform was soaked and muddy by the time she got to the terminal.  The jeepney ride was as long as it was uncomfortable for her being soaked and all.  And by the time she was knocking at the front door, she was in tears. It was a bad day for her.

She’s had two bad days in a row. The day before the downpour, she tried out for the school paper and didn’t get in.  Her article wasn’t chosen.  Her friend’s article was chosen and she was ecstatic, much to my daughter’s pain. She got caught in the emotional conflict of wanting to be happy for her friend who got in and being angry that she didn’t. Not becoming a staffer on the school paper wasn’t as bad as the rejection, I suppose.

The next day, she thought she’d join the dance troupe instead and sent me a text to ask my permission.  I replied that I wanted her to join a club that would sharpen her intellect, not expose her body.  They wear costumes that I think are too skimpy for a twelve year old girl to wear.  And the costumes cost money.  Not to mention the rehearsals on Saturdays and Sundays which will leave her ragged. She will have no time or energy for school work or church.  I told her that we should talk about it when we both get home.  She texted me back: “Never mind. Forget I mentioned it.”

And then the downpour.  And then the tears, the disappointment and the frustration. She was tired and angry.

What is a mother to do?  What is a mother to say?

I don’t know if it helped but I told her:

1. God the Father is a good parent who doesn’t withhold good things from his children.  If God the Father did not allow you to get into the school paper as a staffer, He must have a good reason.  We must trust God to know what is best for us.

2.  God the Father doesn’t give us all that we ask for, He doesn’t give us all that we want.  Sometimes what we ask for and what we want so badly aren’t really good for us.  We will not always get what we want even if God loves us.

3. This is just one disappointment among so many unexpected blessings: you qualified to take the SSC exam without even trying to qualify for it; you were able to attend the review and didn’t get sick at all; you took the exam and passed it; you got into Atom which was the section you wanted to get into; God gave us the money to enroll you early so that you were able to qualify to take the SSC exam.  if the money didn’t come early, we would have enrolled you in June then you would have been too late to even take the SSC exam. You would have  missed the SSC exam and you would have been in the regular classes. We were able to buy all your books and your uniforms.

4. God the Father does not raise spoiled brats for children.  There is no guarantee that when we become christians our lives will be all smooth and trouble-free. God often allows disappointments to come our way to see how we will react: will we turn to him, pour out our disappointment and yet thank and trust him that he has a better plan for our life?  Do we expect good things from him in the future even when the clouds are dark right now? or will we sulk and become resentful against him, ignore him and just stay away?

5. God is worthy of your trust. He is all-knowing so he sees the future not like us.  He is wise and so he knows how one thing that seems good to us in the present may turn out not to be good for us at all in the future.  God is all-powerful.  He can work in the circumstances of our lives so that the most painful things can actually turn out to be the biggest blessings; God promised that ALL things will work together for good to those who love him and who are called according to his purpose.

6. If you really want to be a staffer on the paper, get some experience: write, write, write until you are such a good writer, the school paper will beg you to be on their staff.  Get a blog, keep a journal: write out your anger and your frustrations.  At first you will seem to be doing nothing but ranting but later, you will see that you will gain the skill of presenting thoughts, ideas and emotions in a clear and persuasive manner.  Don’t let this disappointment remain a disappointment. Take it as a challenge, a chance to prove them wrong.

If it were me, I would have rolled my eyeballs at my own mother for having said all those things, but instead, my daughter just rolled over on to her side, faced the wall, covered her face with a pillow and took a nap.

I was surprised to receive a text from her much later, after she had slept on it and  she’d had time to think things over: “Thanks, Mom, you always know what to say. I don’t think of how bad my day is anymore when I see that you and dad had a bad day, too.”

When it rains, it does pour.