One of those days…

So today……..

and also a little of this….

Yepper…it was a hummdinger of a day for this mommy and 3 boys!  I considered taking selfies for tonight’s blog post but I was too embarrassed that I think I really make these ladies look good. I actually think this day makes the all time top 10 list.  I could go on a rant for an hour or so about everything that happened today but honestly this wouldn’t really do anything other than leave us both frustrated.  You know the kind of day that causes these faces, I know you do.

As I sit here and finally start to eat my dinner (which is of course totally unhealthy stress-eating food) I am trying to calm my spirit down and reflect on what the heck made this such a nut-so day?  Was it me?  Was it them?  Was it a cold front coming in?  Maybe it was some how my husbands fault?  There has got to be some logical reason as to why days like this happen….right?

Here is what I think about days like today. They stink.  Big time.  But they happen to all of us don’t they?  Whether you have 3 kids, 1 kid, 20 kids or no kids….these days will come.  We are all human and in our human sin nature we are going to get angry, impatient, frustrated, depressed, sad, and a few hundred other emotions.  It is just life.  The good new is that no matter how crazy my kids act, or how many things go wrong, at the end of the day I still love them.  And I am still so enormously blessed to have the life that I have.

I think the thing we simply must do when these days happen is just to do the best we can to get to the end of the day.  Take a mommy time out for 2 minutes locked in the bathroom if you have to (don’t laugh you know you have done it).  Then once things have calmed down, the kids are in bed and you find a moment to yourself, take a deep breath (or maybe 10).  Quit reliving the day over and over in your head.  Just hit the stop button, change the channel and start by naming 5 ways you were blessed today.  I know some days it is hard to believe there are any but I guarantee you even on the worst of days you have been blessed.

The author of the book of Hebrews depicts the greatest example of this in the beginning of the twelfth chapter:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Today I had a bad day, and so did my kids.  On the day mentioned in the scriptures above Jesus had a bad day.  It does not take a scholar to see the vast difference in mine and Jesus’s days.  These verses tell us that Jesus did not just have a bad day and then pout about it, or give in to depression or bitterness.  He did not call up all his buddies and rant and gossip over everything that happened that day.  He did not take out his anger on anyone, not even the ones that were causing his bad day.  On the contrary He endured all of those events for the sole reason of saving the people that caused Him to have the bad day in the first place!

What I am trying to get at here is that Jesus focused His eyes on His Father and He willfully endured the cross and all of its shame…..with joy.  Don’t miss that word.  Joy.  He wasn’t happy about it I am sure.  But He found joy in His day because of me.  And because of you.  He knew that His bad day was a requirement in order for us to be able to spend eternity forgiven and with Him.  No matter how bad my day gets, it always ends with Jesus.  I can’t even type that sentence without a smile coming over my lips!  No matter how bad my day gets, it always ends with Jesus!

I encourage you to go back and ready those verses again.  They tell us how to get through a bad day.  Throw off the junk that hinders us.  Yes, we will get caught up in anger and frustration.  We are not perfect.  So….get over it.  Don’t over analyze or make it deeper or more complicated than it needs to be.  At the core it doesn’t matter what it is or how bad it is…Throw it off!  Before your eyes close for the night, throw off the junk that is begging to plant the seeds of bitterness in your heart (John 10:10).  Fix our eyes on Jesus.  He created us.  He is with us.  He knows our thoughts and desires and wishes and wrongs and He still loves us anyway.  We must quit focusing on the struggle and start focusing on the Savior!  When our focus and our identity become vertical with the Master all the distractions of the horizon fade away.  They won’t disappear but they will no longer cause us to grow weary and lose heart.  For when our identity is found in Him, and Him alone, everything else will fall into place.  He is the one who cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).

So will I have another bad day?  Absolutely.  Will it be tomorrow?  There is a chance.  Does it change the fact that I am a redeemed, forgiven, and blessed-beyond-belief child of the King?  Not a chance!  Can’t you find hope in that today?  Doesn’t that make that bad day a little easier to handle?

I am telling you the truth, when I sat down and started typing I was still worked up over my day and couldn’t wait to get to sleep so I could escape from it.  And just by sitting here typing out my thoughts to you I am smiling and re-energized…joyful in my Christ.  So I challenge you today to find the joy in your bad day.  Maybe you need to stick a post-it note on your headboard that says “no matter how bad my day gets, it always ends with Jesus”?  What ever reminder you need to give yourself to take you back to these few verses to remind you that you are loved and cherished by the Creator of the Universe; and no matter how bad it gets, you are still so incredibly blessed to be forgiven, redeemed, and have lived the life you are living!

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