Do you ever feel completely rundown? As though, even if you were to sleep for a week, you would still be behind? That has been me, lately. Sleepless nights, combined with 60+ hour work weeks (I have a full time job and, many days after leaving my full time job I do closets for several hours), for weeks and weeks straight, have left me feeling less than my best self.
Do you ever notice, when one thing seems to go wrong, it’s very much a domino effect? Everything else seems to tumble beneath the weight of that one thing that didn’t go as planned.
I like to think I’m learning to be more flexible, and willing to allow change in my life, but the reality is we all like things the way we like them.
Most of us have our homes, our cars, our lives set up the way we want them to go. It can sometimes be suffocating to someone who may be trying to tiptoe their way across the moat that is my life. I have a fictitious moat to protect my life and me from unwanted changes or disappointments that so often occur, in hopes that I can truly be the strong tower that I appear to be from miles away.
Most people have this “moat”, in varying degrees.
I don’t have life all figured out. I have so many questions, doubts, and concerns, that if I don’t actively keep my mind in check, it can run away with all of these unrealistic notions that people are out to get me, that I will never be enough, and all sorts of other crazy ideas.
The truth is, and I’m certainly not the first to say this, people are going to hurt you.
Words are going to sting.
Employers will choose to let you go.
Your car will run out of gas on the day you are already running late to the most important event of the week.
Your children will break your heart.
Your spouse or significant other will let you down, numerous times in your relationship, and on and on…
But, words will also make you feel ridiculously giddy and special.
You will get hired for the job you never thought in 1 million years you had a chance at getting.
Someone will make you feel like the most important person in the whole world.
Your car will seemingly never run out of gas for a week, straight.
Your children will make you prouder than you ever thought possible. Your partner will tell you that you are the best looking person in the room, in the city, and maybe even in the whole wide world.
Yes, there will be days when you think it’s impossible for anything to go wrong.
But none of these things will happen very often. Because life happens. The relationship that felt like a fairytale will suddenly turn into three years of normalcy, and you will think that person that used to look at you so adoringly doesn’t even know you exist, anymore.
You will wake up one day and realize you haven’t washed your hair in a week.
Or bathed your kids.
Or done laundry, cooked, or paid any of the bills that are now overdue.
Because, life happened.
What happened to change the excitement you first felt with a new relationship, job, friend? It wasn’t new, and unexpected anymore, right?
Kind of like the brand-new toy your child gets for his or her birthday. The first few days, they can’t put it down, or play with it enough. But after that, it’s not quite so special.
Why?
Because it’s not new anymore.
We get complacent in life. We all do. We get busy living and making a living, that we forget to enjoy the moments we are making, each day.
The difference between the good days and bad days are the choices you make.
Most everything in life is the result of a choice.
You choose to be happy, you choose to be miserable.
You choose to make lemonade out of lemons, or let them mold.
We are all human, and are majorly flawed.
Yet, we crave human interaction with other, very flawed, individuals.
God had a reason for creating Eve after Adam. He CHOSE to create Adam first, to be the leader, the strong one, a person able to handle everything in life, alone. Yet, he gifted Adam with Eve, because God knew, even though Adam *could* make it through life alone, having a companion would make life so much better and more enjoyable.
God CHOSE to create Eve to be supportive, nurturing, and helpful to her husband. She wasn’t created quite as tall, or as strong, but she was taken from Adam’s rib, because, even though Adam can function without that rib, it was part of his DNA to provide support and to help hold him up. The rib was there to be a part of him. So was she. And, so are we.
Sure, there are plenty of people who make it through life without a companion or spouse. But, it’s nice to have that help or extra support around, when it is needed most, whether it be from a partner, a friend, a family member…who CHOOSES to be there. We ALL need each other, at some point and time.
God knows what we need. Each one of us. He knows who needs a little extra humor to make it through their day, and who needs a quiet corner to sit and cry. God knows who needs to sleep in an extra 30 minutes because they were up all night with a crying baby, and who needs to wake up a few minutes earlier than usual, to calm their nerves before a big sales pitch to their boss. God knows the secret things your heart desires, as well as the deepest darkest corner of your heart where you have hidden all of the hurt and disappointment of the past. And guess what? He accepts you just as you are, and loves you, unconditionally.
I want to love like this. I try, and on most days, I think I do a pretty good job. But it doesn’t come close to the love the Lord has for us.
If you are fearful, worried, stressed, or just exhausted – physically or emotionally, know that you are not alone. Know there is someone who is waiting for someone just like you to CHOOSE to come into their life, and show them what complete acceptance is. It may be a new friend, coworker, boss, significant other… Or even a new pet. =)
Sometimes, we all just need to hear, and feel that we are special. That we matter. And that someone, somewhere, knows their life is better because we are in it.I struggle to find words to adequately convey what, exactly, I felt, and continue to feel, as more tragedies unfold
around the world.
Why are people so hateful?
Why do people believe they have the right to “choose” whether someone lives or dies?
We live in a fallen, tragic world, full of arrogant humans who are so self-absorbed, we often don’t take the time to appreciate the world in which we live. Here is what I know; I believe the Bible in its entirety.
Yes, there are MANY sins that are spelled out in black and white.
Yes, there are commandments.
Yes, we are also human, make mistakes, and are therefore not perfect, like God.
BUT…the Bible says the “greatest commandment is this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself”.
Common sense tells me if we ALL chose to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and loved our neighbors as much as we love ourselves, well, NONE of the tragedies we hear about would happen, because we’d all be too busy loving each other to worry about killing each other.
Even in my imperfection, I strive to daily love as Christ loves. I genuinely WANT to show others I care, give unselfishly, and help when and where I’m needed. I say we CHOOSE here and now to leave the judgment up to Christ, and instead, CHOOSE to focus on loving.
~XO