Bumpy Day

 We all know that having a crappy day happens. It sucks, but it does. Yes, I am being non-classy in my word choice, please pardon my rough edges.

I have spent the last 10 days or so walking in this place of razor sharp discernment and wisdom. I have been hearing God's voice clearly and spoken many words of life into many hard situations and to precious people. I should have been ready when stuff went sideways, it often happens that way.

Marital communication breakdowns (yes, we all have them), kids dumping soap down sink drains while water is running foaming it to overflow, pouring water outside of the bathtub, soaking freshly laundered clothes, cleaning up the same mess 7 times in an hour, desperately longing to enjoy my fellas instead of discipline and train them in wise choice making, and trying to figure out how to deal with household maintenance concerns without disrupting anything major... it all adds up to one really stressed out Mommy.

But it didn't have to.

I have been exercising, eating right, praying, staying in the Bible, basically doing everything I know I should be doing for optimal results and yet, the enemy of my soul still managed to whisper a lie into my head that I believed...

"Nothing is ever going to change - you will never get organized, lose weight, be a great mom, make your husband happy... etc."

It is a lie. But I didn't shut it down and immediately speak the truth in my heart or out loud to blast it back to the dark territory it came from. So it festered like an infected wound for the last couple of days until it finally surfaced when a convergence of not terribly unusual circumstances reared their annoying but not disastrous heads.

THAT was when disaster struck.

Now that I have been prayed for (it takes a lot for me to post a "SOS" type status on my Facebook page), the fog is clearing and the truth is surfacing...

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (Amplified Bible)¹⁶Be happy [in your faith] and rejoice and be glad-hearted continually (always);    ¹⁷Be unceasing in prayer [praying perseveringly];    ¹⁸Thank [God] in everything [no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks], for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus [the Revealer and Mediator of that will].

Now, I personalized the above verse for my situation today:

I choose to be happy in my faith and rejoice and be glad-hearted continually (always), praying without ceasing and persevering in that prayer (even when the sink is foaming and the tub is being emptied manually), thanking God in my challenges of communicating in my marriage because I have a wonderful husband that loves me and his family and it will always be worth the trouble to sort out our misunderstandings. I will give thanks for my Love and the children I begged God for because it is His will for me to walk this road. I will learn I am not defined by my circumstances, He defines who I am. He is the revealer and mediator of His plan for my life. I can give thanks because God's perspective is much more broad and wise than my understanding of any of this. 

Thank you for your prayers. Please forgive the extra words, I am still not functioning on all cylinders. But God is good and I will be fine... now for a nap.

I must add - despite my momentary desire to bag my NO SUGAR eating plan due to today's stressors, I DID NOT CAVE!! I finally ate a wise portion of healthy food and leaned on my strategies to prevent failure instead of wiping out my vision for success. Yay! :)