One of "Those Days"

Happy Sunday!

Have you ever had one of “those days?” I guess I did yesterday…

The day started out beautifully.

I woke up and the sun was shining…for the first day in a long time. And it wasn’t raining…for the first day in a long time. I was looking forward to a great day!

Zach had a haircut in the morning, so he and I spent some time together traveling to and from his appointment, and I thoroughly enjoyed his company and catching up with him on what’s going on in his world.

But, after arriving home, and logging on my computer, I realized I missed a pretty important deadline for my business. I wanted to cry, and it took everything out of me to fight back the tears as I sat there dumb-founded, staring at my laptop screen. Not only did I miss it this time, I missed it last quarter too.

I felt defeated, worthless and undeserving of anything good. Thoughts like, “I can’t keep up,” and “You can do anything right,” and “You’re doing too much” came flooding through my mind. I got up from the dining room table and walked away.

Laundry became my distraction of choice. But then as I was switching laundry from the washer to the dryer or to the rack to hang the clothes dry, I was reminded of my injured shoulder when the pain once again shot through that area. I have no idea how I hurt my shoulder, but I did. And with almost every move, I’m in pain.

Once again, I felt defeated, worthless, and a new feeling…old!

Then the pity party began. And I threw a good one. I began to look at everything wrong around me. Our broken window pane in our double-paned window, our stained carpet, chores that still needed to be finished by our children, the mess in Ali’s room, etc. I wanted to scream! I had the desire to turn from my plans of eating healthy all day, and I wanted to consume every bad thing for this body of mine that we had in our home…chocolates, greasy food, gummy bears, anything! Forget my plans to work out…those went out the window as soon as the party started. I became even more irritated that the original plans of me having a retreat night away had to be changed due to unforeseen circumstances. Everything began to spiral downward…and quickly.

I realized I had to get a grip.

I read a short devotional, in hopes that maybe God would show me something encouraging. He did, and it helped. I began to think of all the great things in my life…my family, falling in love with Bill yesterday 22 years ago (that’s one reason why I wrote yesterday’s post), the beautiful weather. I intentionally became thankful for our home, our simple furnishings, our working vehicles and everything else I could think of. I thanked God for my health and for all the parts of my body that work perfectly.

I consciously thought about others who are dealing with more serious things than me missing a deadline or my hurt shoulder. And I asked God to bless them.

My attitude changed drastically and quickly. And I was thankful for that. I did end up eating a few gummy bears (okay, more than just a few) and I never did get on the treadmill yesterday, but really…my day ended up being salvaged. I had to come to the realization that I couldn’t control the circumstances around me, but I could control my attitude regarding them. Putting everything into perspective and being thankful for how God has blessed me and my family made all the difference! No matter what we may be going through, we can find the good in it…even if it is one of “those days!” It could always be worse!

God also got my attention to one again look at my life and how I’m living it. Could it be that I’m doing too much? Is there anything that I need to let go of? I feel He showed me a couple of things which I will be praying about.

I pray this may encourage you in some small way today! 🙂 God bless you!