One of THOSE days...

It's one of those days. 

You know the kind. You can barely get out of bed because the exhaustion won't let go. You make your to-do list for the day and it's filled with more things than you can humanly accomplish in 24 hours, and you try to prioritize but you can't because they ALL have to get done. You loose track of time and now you are having tortilla chips and coffee for breakfast. The dog won't stop barking at every little thing outside, which makes your head throb just a little bit more. You sit down to pay the bills and wonder where all the money went, and then fight the urge to go hide under the covers for the rest of the day, which wouldn't work anyway since you would have cold little bodies climbing in with you and kicking you in the back and poking you in the face.

And it's only 8:30am.

Where's the giant chocolate-fudge-chocolate-molten-chocolate cake with chocolate icing?

Those are the days when hope is hard to hold on to. You feel like the day is out of control and it hasn't even started yet. Maybe there are health problems weighing on your mind. Maybe the dog needs to get to vet because you think he has fleas. Maybe the paycheck you got on Friday is gone, but there are bills that still need to be paid. Or maybe your usually adorable three-year-old has colored on the wall for the last time. No matter what the issues are, YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

When I went to the Hearts-at-home conference last month, I took a class called Grace(and a plan) for THOSE Days. Now the focus of this class was more along the lines of finding grace in the midst of chaos created by your children. But what about when life is just chaos in general? 

I was having a day much like the one described above. In the midst of my not-so-great morning, I had a mini break down and the tears just started flowing. After an hour long conversation with my dad, I calmed down and was able to think straight again. 

Once I got my head on straight and blew my nose 100 times, I looked at my to-do list and started over. Pay bills, check. Throw a load of laundry in and move on to the next thing. One thing at a time, Evie. Then I remembered the class I took at H-A-H and I dug out my notebook from the conference.

First note I wrote down: YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

Ahhhh, that's right. I'm not alone! There is some other mom out there right now having a meltdown with me. And if not right now, then every mom I know has had a moment like this at some point in her life. (And if you say that you haven't, then you, miss, are a liar.) Remembering that other moms have been through hard times can help. Some women put on the air of perfection, acting as if all is well in the world and nothing can bring them down. But I guarantee that at one time or another, they too felt the walls closing in. They are just really good at hiding it. And you know what? Props to them! I wish I was that good at hiding my problems! Heck, I'm sitting here unloading my dirty laundry on the internet for crying out loud. Obviously, I can't keep my big mouth shut. Look at me! I have LOTS of problems!! Ok, sorry, I had to lighten the mood a little. 

So what happens when your bad day turns into a bad week? Or maybe a bad month? Or for some people a bad year? It can get really hard to hold on to hope through times like this. I have friends that have been through things such as cancer scares, house foreclosures,  bankruptcies, loss of a child...the list goes on. How do these people manage to still get up every morning and keep on going? I have a bad morning with some piddly issues at home and I want to jump into a gallon of ice cream.

Here are some verses that might help when you are struggling in the midst of a bad...life.

Romans 12:12 - "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer."

Honestly, I could stop with this one. It says it perfectly. I think the hard part is rejoicing in hope, which is hard to do when you are having a hard time. But if we can remember to be patient in the hard times and to constantly pray, not pray a couple times, but pray continually, it will help us find that hope to rejoice in. This is an area where I struggle. I don't pray as often as I should, I'll send up a prayer here and there when I'm in the moment and really struggling, but I don't pray constantly about what ever is concerning me.

Hebrews 11:1 - "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

2 Corinthians 5:7 - "We walk by faith, not by sight."

These two kind of go hand in hand. Faith is a huge part of hope. There is no hope if you don't have faith in the one you have hope in. A friend reminded me of the 2 Corinthians verse yesterday. It's her "mantra" so to speak, and for what their family has been through, it's perfect. If we went strictly by what we see and what we experience, we would all be so hopeless. We would have nothing to hold on to, we would have no hope that the bills would get paid, that we'll be able to get healthy even when we fall off the wagon, that we'd make it through a rough patch with our spouse, that we'd ever see that lost child again. We need to hold onto the hope that God provides us through our faith. 

Job 11:18 - "You will be secure because there is hope, you will look about you and take rest in your safety."

Security. That's a nice feeling isn't it? I doubt Job had much reason to feel secure. If you have never read Job, then I highly recommend it. If you think your life is bad...this guy lost EVERYTHING. And yet, he kept his faith in God and had hope for the future. And God stayed true to him. 

When I first started writing this blog post, I was having a bad day. And unfortunately, my bad day turned into a bad week. Now it's Sunday, the beginning of a new week, and I'm wary of the days ahead. But as I type, my 3-year-old is sitting at the lunch table singing "I want a pickle, hey, hey, hey" from the movie Little Rascals and it makes me smile.

Hope. 

I can hope that tomorrow will be better than today. That next week will be better than this week. That I will be able to accomplish my tasks and spend time with my children. I can hope that I will stop eating brownies for breakfast and start pay attention to my eating again. (Don't judge, you've done it, too.) I can pray constantly for God to give me patience, endurance, and strength to make it through the bad days. And I can have faith that He will get me through them. 

And the biggest thing of all for me? I have to remember that it could always be worse. I am blessed to have a roof over my head, clothes in my closet, a steady income, two of the most wonderful daughters I could ask for, and a husband that loves me. I am also blessed to have a God that forgives me and loves me unconditionally, even when I have pity parties for myself and I feel overwhelmed and hopeless. 

Maybe it's not such a bad day after all.