A New Day

This day started in a whirlwind. You know those days where you just know it is going to go 90 miles an hour all day long. Thankfully I did not procrastinate the things that I needed to do and thus am able to slow down, even if it is for 10 minutes. Procrastination is a concept that I have become fully involved in over the years. It amazes me how little things snowball so quickly if not taken care of from the start. Over the last few months I have taken a strong effort to do those things which I may not like so they do not loom over me later as a bigger task I REALLY don't like or a crisis. I have to often pray and ask God to help me to stay on track. I would love to tell you I have successfully accomplished all my goals recently this way but I have not. In the same way as my struggle to gain control over my eating habits I have learned I did not get to these habits overnight and I will not turn them around overnight. I say this to myself not as an excuse but to keep me from going down the path of dismay that will lead me to stop the great progress I have made. I pray I will reach my goal in the coming months but for now I just must take it one day at a time.

I took the girls to the Aquarium the other day and then we went for a trolley ride. As we got on the trolley I noticed there was noone there but a young man sitting all alone. After a short while he spoke to a couple of people getting on offering them a flyer for telephone service. I noticed then he had a great deal of difficulty speaking. As he stood up to leave the trolley at another stop I observed that he appeared to have cerebal palsy. I looked at him and realized again how blessed I am. In everything that transpired over my childhood my parents were told that I may not ever walk. And yet I do. Further, both of my girls were both born healthy. I noticed this man did not sulk he just went about the business he set out to do, albeit it difficult. I thought once again that much more often I need to use all the skills God has blessed me with and be thankful for all he has given me. In that thankfulness will I find the true joy that brings me up on those days that seem so gloomy.

With that thought in mind this morning I finished a vigorous workout a the gym that I had barely graced the door of in the years prior to this past January. I am not where I want to be but I am a work in progress. I feel that should always be the way I look at my life. A work in progress, better than I used to be.

One of Those Days

How often have we felt like we just cannot please anyone? That thinking can lead us to really evaluate why we do what we do. I was having one of those days today. I realized that that still small voice of God speaking to my heart is what motivates me to do many of those things I don't desire to do but know I ought to do. But God does not want our begrudging attitude, he wants us to give our all to him. So, sometimes instead of secretly complaining we should go to him and ask him to change our heart about the task we have set before us. No matter how small.

It's interesting the way God works. Almost as soon as I allowed God to do some heart changing I viewed the things that kept coming at me with a laugh. Yes, a laugh. Let me shed a little light here. You see after coming home from a very frantic trip to the airport to get my husband on his flight in time I walked into my kitchen to find one of my larger pictures on the floor shattered. It was not hard to figure out this happened because one of my doors to the house was slammed one too many times (not out of anger but because little ones tend to want to push the door shut a little harder than they need to). So, as my older daughter works on some extra touches to a science project I bend over and begin picking up pieces, as my back and legs scream to me in pain. Aaah, just one of those days I thought. How much better was that thinking then what had been going around in my head the rest of the day. I pray God will help me to look at those hard days as 'just one of those days' next time I begin down the spiraling path of frustration.