Strength and Tiny Blessings

Yesterday kind of sucked for me. It was Mother's Day, and I felt like I deserved a nice relaxing day off from everything.  Apparently, I was the only one who thought that as nothing was done around the house including feeding the kids.  I felt really unappreciated.  I felt punished.  I felt as though a few people in my life were being hateful and hurtful on purpose.

Around 5:30pm yesterday, I finally had enough of feeling like poo and went to visit a friend for a quick hug.  I told her that this was so hard.  One thing she said to me resonated in my head the rest of the night:

"Some day, God is going to say to you, 'Look how strong you were!'  And that will get you through the next trial."

I never thought about it like that.  So I thought back on all the times I have said before, "This is so hard. I can't do it."  And I got through and look at those moments in my life saying, "I was so strong." (Or rather, people remind me of them to show my strength as sometimes I'm just blinded to what I have accomplished.)

One day, God's going to use this time to help me get through another.

As if those words weren't encouraging enough, this morning in two separate devotionals by two separate authors and ministries God spoke to me.  Both expressed the importance of finding the little miracles where you are right now on the way to where I am going.  In other words, stop complaining about what is going wrong and focus on the little itty bitty things that make a day worthwhile.

Tiny blessing from yesterday:  I bought a pack of four colored pens (purple, blue, green, and orange).  For some reason that makes me happy.  Now my devotional notes look oh-so-pretty.

After reading those two devotionals (and all the others I read first thing in the morning), the very last one said this:

"Trials come to prove your strength in God!"

Thank you for speaking to me, Lord!