Romans 12:21

Sometimes, every other day once in a great moon, I become overwhelmed. I feel as if it's all hopeless, nothing is going to get accomplished, and that I should just give up. Those dogs you have to take care of? They can play with their toys instead of you. Those kids you have to help? They can watch television for the rest of the day. That dinner you have to make? Ever heard of 'Ramen'?

Now, I want to make very clear that I don't believe that these are evil things coming up in your life. To blame these things on the devil lacks reason and understanding. I do, however, believe that these stressors we put on ourselves are distractions. These distractions start out as pea-sized and snowball into mountain-sized problems. These mountains have a tendency of leading us to excuse our behavior, and eventually to sin.

So what do you do when you're stressed out, the baby is crying, the dogs are barking, you're sick, and you're late to work? You take a moment, you inhale and exhale, and you remember that in the scheme of things, this is just a blip in the radar of the plan that God has for you. You are going to do so many things that will make this moment in this day look minuscule in comparison. God loves you, and He will always make sure that you will find a way out of this.

I picked this topic today because I woke up finding myself on "the wrong side of the bed". I was irritated from the moment I woke up. Everything went wrong. So what did I do? I figured, well, Christmas is only 79 days away, might as well get started on knitting the blankets for the dogs. So I did. During the first five rows, I began to second guess my choice (and thought Oh God, what have you got me into now?), my tension was causing the knitted blanket to look odd, but I took a deep breath, and six hours later, I'm a little over 1/3 of the way done with one blanket. I ended up having a wonderful day - wonderful conversation, wonderful food, the dogs were miraculously well behaved today, and all-around, it calmed me. I am thankful for that today.

I am a big believer in finding Jesus in the small things. I don't need a huge 'JESUS 5 miles ---->' sign to make me realize that He's real. Any time the thought "this is proof of God", it's always in the small things. Overcome your doubts, overcome your anger, and overcome your hatred. I believe that in this, you will find Him.

Daily Reminder: I'm the first to admit it - there's a lot of bad in this world, and I've done my share of 'wrong', my share of 'bad'. I think we all wonder sometimes: Am I really worthy? The bible says yes, I am and you are. Enjoy that, and know that you are never alone.