everyday is a journey.
I will shun no toil or woe
where thou loudest I will go
be my pathway plain or rough
if but every hour may be
spent in work that pleases thee
Oh dear Lord, it is enough
G. Tersteegen
How many of us have felt ungrateful? All of us. We may have gotten off to a bad start right as we stepped off our beds in the morning. Nothing we encounter or do for the rest of the day works in our favor and we quickly become ungrateful with everything in our life. Ever have that kind of day? For me, being ungrateful is usually followed by negative thoughts about myself and others view of me. Well, at least all of us have experienced such moments in our lives. So has Lysa. Enjoy.
When You Just Don’t Feel Very Thankful
LYSA TERKEURST |
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)
It was one of those days. I drove to the airport in the pouring rain. The skies were gray. The day was gloomy. And honestly, so was I.
Many of the things entrusted to me in life were beginning to feel more like burdens than blessings.
There were just a lot of little things swarming my thoughts. Feelings of inadequacy. There are so many things I’m responsible for and never enough hours in the day. I do enough to keep things from sinking. But I just wonder if I’m doing anything well. I don’t think I am … doing anything well.
The more I focused on these thoughts, the more overpowered I became. The more overpowered I became, the more withdrawn I felt.
I pulled into the parking space and started the fight with my luggage. My suitcase had two wheels missing, and of course I kept intending to do something about this. But I didn’t have time. So I made do with a crazy suitcase and a crazy life and a crazy sense I should just pack my family up and move out west somewhere. Live on a ranch where we grow our own food and I cook beans in a big pot over an open flame.
Surely that would fix everything.
Except I knew it wouldn’t.
Because the chaos wasn’t from my circumstances.
It was inside me.
I boarded the plane. I stared out the window. I watched the gray clouds envelop us. And then the gray broke.
Suddenly, we rose above the clouds and the sun was shining brightly. The sky was fabulously clear.
The clouds were just a temporary covering. They didn’t stop the sun from shining. They merely prevented my eyes from seeing the sun. And it wasn’t just the sky that appeared a little brighter. My mood did as well.
I started to shift from feeling overpowered to empowered as I realized three things:
Just because I feel it doesn’t make it real.
Just like the clouds prevented my eyes from seeing sun, my gloomy mood had prevented me from seeing the truth. I might feel like I’m not doing anything well, but it doesn’t make it true. The fact that I have weaknesses doesn’t make everything about me weak. I have plenty of strengths.
All I have to do is ask a couple of my friends or family members to help me see what I do well. I can celebrate those, and then get a plan for bettering things that need improvement. I can start by identifying one thing to improve this month, and then do a little toward making that one thing better.
There are a lot of people who would trade their best day for my worst day.
Yes, I have a lot to manage. And yes, sometimes things get a little foggy. But that doesn’t mean I have to stay swallowed up in the gray. That means I need to get my head above the clouds and see all the many places where the sun is shining brightly in my life.
I can start by making a list of things for which I need to be thankful.
Have a blessed day everyone.
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