An eyeball was not literally lost during our task to provide a fun teenage hangout place in our home thank the Lord!  Well at least no lost eyeballs yet.   A blood vessel in my eye burst upon hearing some bad news that made me have to do some serious tongue holding.  All companies and vendors that we have patronized during this endeavor have been great minus one.  The very first thing I arranged and put money down for, an egress window, is a major hold up in our project.  Because this space is in the basement and with wanting to have an additional bedroom we decided this would be the best thing to do to provide a fire escape for any occupants.  The basement room would make space available upstairs for the extra sleeping accommodations.  This would open up opportunities to have foreign exchange students, guests, possibly foster a child, etc…

The company doing this for us has been in business a long time and I had not heard anything bad about them.  Their specialty is waterproofing basements so I figured who better to make sure a new hole in the basement wall is sealed tight.  Unfortunately this company has disappointed several times, has always told different stories each time I have had an interaction with its employees, and has had delay after delay.  Before the eyeball blow up they had already knocked my confidence level in them to a very low.  Finally it looked like the installation of the window was actually going to happen.  The guys showed up and everything!  Unfortunately I was at work and my poor mother had to come and hold down the fort for us.  The first install date I had been able to take at least one of the days off work to be home, but with the reschedule was unable to make such arrangements.  That day I go to my lunch break and check my text messages.  This is the message I see from my mother.  “Bad news.  The company that made the window made it the wrong way.  The tall part was made horizontally instead of vertically.  They are going to cover the hole.  They are trying to see how soon they can get the right window.”   It was the “cover the hole” that caused my stress level and blood pressure spike.  The vision I had in my mind was a 5 foot 4 inch by 4 foot hole in the concrete wall of our basement in the middle of January left open to the elements indefinitely.  As well as when it rains there would be a mudslide right into our house from the hole dug in the outside landscape.  I clinched my fists, took a deep breath, and then pursed my lips.   I am quite sure this is what cause the blood vessel explosion.  Being in the lounge having lunch with my coworkers I got up and walked over to the lockers to call my mom with my back to my coworkers.  I ended up speaking with the window installer and found out that they had only dug the hole outside and there were no cuts in the concrete.   I will spare you of the details of the rest of the story as we continue to wait for this service to be completed. When I finished the conversation with the man and my mom I turned to face my coworkers.  They exclaimed “Oh my gosh what is wrong with your eye?!?!”   Half of my right eye was now bright red from a blood vessel burst from holding in my anger.  It took all that was in me to prevent regretful angry words in loud decibels from being spewed from my lips!!

There are many verses about holding and taming the tongue and how to prevent sin when one experiences the emotion of anger.   These are the actual verses that keep coming to mind though.

Matthew 5:29-30 ” If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away.  It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.  It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”

In this case my right eyeball took one for the team for my tongue.  If I end up wearing an eyeball patch in the end you all will know the company doing this window failed yet again to come through.   Either I am too nice or it is because I serve  God who is the  God of 2nd chances and forgiveness.  Matthew 18:21-22″Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?  Up to seven times?’  Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.”