Yesterday I pulled one of those boneheaded things that gets you so mad at yourself and everything else that you just want to scream, throw things, and just go berserk. I have been doing on a study for weeks on Wednesday nights about how to use the Word of God in our everyday lives, and I spent hours working on that yesterday. The stuff was just flowing, and I had roughly 12 pages of notes typed up that would constitute two to three weeks worth of material that I would teach to the church. I was literally typing the last sentence that I was going to do before shutting it down and cooking supper for the family, when all of a sudden... CRASH! That dreaded box popped up on my screen saying something like "MS Word has encountered a problem and must shut down..."
And it hit me...
I have not stopped to save what I had been doing at any point during the hours I had been working. Not once! That is just not a smart way to work, and I knew that I really had no one to blame but myself. But I was steamed. My stomach started tightening up, and I felt nauseous. I literally thought I was going to vomit. As I worked frantically trying to recover my notes, I literally was fighting back tears. (If you don't know me; I cry when I am extremely angry.)
My poor wife and kids. I was on the edge ready to explode, and I knew it, but I don't think any of them realized just how bad this was to me. I told each of them, several times that I was in an extremely bad mood, and I knew it was not their faults, but to please just be quiet and leave me alone. The kids were in particularly playful mood, and as they were supposed to be setting the table for dinner, they just could not focus, and kept running through the house chasing one another and I was in no mood for either their laughter or the fact that they were not setting the table. I walked into the room where they were, and their must have been flames shooting from my eyes, because before I could say a word, Ashley says, "Uh-oh Daniel, we'd better set the table right now," and they went to the kitchen and proceeded to work, speaking only in whispers. I heard Ashley whisper to Daniel, "Look out people, I think he's ready to blow" and with that they ran outside and began to laugh their heads off. I knew it was not their fault and that I was being a royal pain to my family, so I just walked away from the computer, went upstairs and sat on the porch for a few minutes and prayed. I told the Lord that my attitude really stunk and that my anger was at the point of causing me to sin and that I needed help. I knew that I had to get it under control before I faced my family again. Besides that, I had to go to church in 90 minutes and I was in a terrible frame of mind and spirit to worship God, and I could not stand to teach the Word feeling what I was feeling.
I won't go into all the details, but suffice it to say that God helped me. By the time we went to church, my anger was subsided, and by the time we got through worship, I could even laugh (slightly) about it. I'm so thankful that we serve a God who can calm the storm that rage inside of us just as well as those that rage about us!
And you can believe, I WILL remember to save my work from time to time from now on!
8 comments:
I hate when that happens too! Nothing burns me more on computers is redoing the same work when something like that happens...
Go to Tools on your menu bar.
Select Options, and click on the Save tab.
Set your autosave time to every 5 minutes.
Actually, my settings were set at that, but, whatever this error was, it lost it all. Most of the time the autorecover will bring it back, or at least a portion... but I got zip.
Live and learn. From now on I create a saved document and will save it that way.
Jesus and Satan have a discussion as to who is the better programmer. This goes on for a few hours until they come to an agreement to hold a contest, with God as the judge.
They sit themselves at their computers and begin. They type furiously, lines of code streaming up the screen, for several hours straight. Seconds before the end of the competition, a bolt of lightning strikes, taking out the electricity. Moments later, the power is restored, and God announces that the contest is over.
He asks Satan to show what he has come up with. Satan is visibly upset, and cries, "I have nothing. I lost it all when the power went out."
"Very well, then," says God, "let us see if Jesus fared any better."
Jesus enters a command, and the screen comes to life in vivid display, the voices of an angelic choir pour forth from the speakers. Satan is astonished.
He stutters, "B-b-but how? I lost everything, yet Jesus' program is intact. How did he do it?"
God smiled all-knowingly, "Jesus saves."
*smirks*
I hope we are far enough past the storm for you to smile LOL ;)
I have done that too... and most of the time it jsut doesn't seem to come out as brilliantly as the first time.
So I have to ask... did you ever get that stuff back and what did you end up speaking on Wednesday night?
No David, I never recovered it. I pretty well winged it from memory.
Pastor, I really feel bad for you cause I know how upset I got just losing a post on the blogsite, I can imagine how awful it was to lose 12 pages of material that was so important to you! But you handled it well and did the right thing by praying and not blowing your stack!
Tell the truth Darrell, its OK to admit to everyone that you downloaded my stuff, I promise no one will care!
I had that happen once and it wasn't a Word problem, my video card went out just as I hit the button for the last paragraph...no computer! Autorecover has saved my hiney a time or two, but when your motherboard goes...it's over! Thankfully I have a laptop and a desktop, my wife wonders what we did before computers...Prayed?
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