Hello friends :)
Today was a whirlwind day. One of those 1000-things-to-do-but-nothing-actually-gets-done kinds of days. The kind of day where the thank you cards you've been meaning to write still sit untouched on the table, the dishes from last night's dinner are still piled in the sink, the sweaters you've pulled from storage due to an early fall onset are still packed away in bags lying in the middle of the living room (not to mention, your summer clothes are still folded in your dresser drawers waiting to be sorted through). The kind of day where your almost 11 week old baby is a little under the weather and therefore needs you to hold her at all times or will scream miserably until you do. The kind of day where attempting to write an overdue blog post entitles cradling a sleeping baby in your right arm and typing with your left (by the way, I'm right-handed). The kind of day that just happens to be your husband's longest day of the week at school (who, by the way, is sick). The kind of day where the sun never once peeked out from behind the thick layer of clouds covering the city.
Days like today could easily make me feel depressed, disheartened, discouraged, and defeated. And days like today definitely HAVE made me feel that way in the past. But, thankfully I have an amazing Heavenly Father who looks out for wives/moms/women/people like me, and sees to it that they receive just the right amount of energy and grace to get through never ending days like today.
I remember two years ago back at Lake Ann Camp towards the end of the summer when everyone was beginning to feel burnt out, one of my counselor friends pointed out a verse in the Bible that always comes to mind on days like today: "For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me" (Colossians 1:29). Paul makes it clear that it's not our own strength that gets us through life - it's God working through us. Days like today where I can come out on top are not a result of my own strength, but a result of a God who chooses to work through even the simplest of lives and in the most mundane of days.
As I was sitting with Ryenne (which seems to be the only thing I was able to accomplish today), I suddenly realized what a long day it had been, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the only reason I hadn't felt the weight of the day until then was because God had been giving me just the right amount of energy for everything I did or didn't do! It isn't always easy to find your strength in God and to rely on Him as your source of energy - but that's what inspired me to write this post in the first place: I'm not always going to have a day like today and be able to look back on it and actually feel satisfied by it. Maybe today you had a whirlwind day yourself. Maybe you came out on top, and maybe you didn't. My hope is that one day when I experience a day of defeat, that I can remember this post and read it over again to remind myself of what it feels like when I'm drawing my strength from the right place. Hopefully this post is encouraging to someone else as well, because everyone has whirlwind days.
And you know what? Despite the almost less-than-ordinary kind of day it was, I still feel so happy with life. If I didn't have the occasional less-than-ordinary day, I wouldn't realize how thankful I am for the beautiful ordinary days, and most of all, those rare extraordinary days! Life is just so beautiful the way that God designed it, and I feel so blessed to experience the joy in a day like today because God is giving me the energy to do so!
Today was a whirlwind day. One of those 1000-things-to-do-but-nothing-actually-gets-done kinds of days. The kind of day where the thank you cards you've been meaning to write still sit untouched on the table, the dishes from last night's dinner are still piled in the sink, the sweaters you've pulled from storage due to an early fall onset are still packed away in bags lying in the middle of the living room (not to mention, your summer clothes are still folded in your dresser drawers waiting to be sorted through). The kind of day where your almost 11 week old baby is a little under the weather and therefore needs you to hold her at all times or will scream miserably until you do. The kind of day where attempting to write an overdue blog post entitles cradling a sleeping baby in your right arm and typing with your left (by the way, I'm right-handed). The kind of day that just happens to be your husband's longest day of the week at school (who, by the way, is sick). The kind of day where the sun never once peeked out from behind the thick layer of clouds covering the city.
Days like today could easily make me feel depressed, disheartened, discouraged, and defeated. And days like today definitely HAVE made me feel that way in the past. But, thankfully I have an amazing Heavenly Father who looks out for wives/moms/women/people like me, and sees to it that they receive just the right amount of energy and grace to get through never ending days like today.
I remember two years ago back at Lake Ann Camp towards the end of the summer when everyone was beginning to feel burnt out, one of my counselor friends pointed out a verse in the Bible that always comes to mind on days like today: "For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me" (Colossians 1:29). Paul makes it clear that it's not our own strength that gets us through life - it's God working through us. Days like today where I can come out on top are not a result of my own strength, but a result of a God who chooses to work through even the simplest of lives and in the most mundane of days.
As I was sitting with Ryenne (which seems to be the only thing I was able to accomplish today), I suddenly realized what a long day it had been, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the only reason I hadn't felt the weight of the day until then was because God had been giving me just the right amount of energy for everything I did or didn't do! It isn't always easy to find your strength in God and to rely on Him as your source of energy - but that's what inspired me to write this post in the first place: I'm not always going to have a day like today and be able to look back on it and actually feel satisfied by it. Maybe today you had a whirlwind day yourself. Maybe you came out on top, and maybe you didn't. My hope is that one day when I experience a day of defeat, that I can remember this post and read it over again to remind myself of what it feels like when I'm drawing my strength from the right place. Hopefully this post is encouraging to someone else as well, because everyone has whirlwind days.
And you know what? Despite the almost less-than-ordinary kind of day it was, I still feel so happy with life. If I didn't have the occasional less-than-ordinary day, I wouldn't realize how thankful I am for the beautiful ordinary days, and most of all, those rare extraordinary days! Life is just so beautiful the way that God designed it, and I feel so blessed to experience the joy in a day like today because God is giving me the energy to do so!
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| My two favorites a couple of days before they got sick! |
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