We all face issues that try to rob us of our joy—anxiety, loneliness, and discontent—just to name a few. And with all of its expectations and contradictions, this world can take a major toll on us…
We’re supposed to be fit, but not too skinny. Work and hustle, but stay home and be a good mom. Be wild and free, while remaining tidy and pure. Be a good wife, but be totally independent.
It can be exhausting, can’t it?
There’s plenty about life that can keep us looking down. And there’s an awful lot we deal with that makes us look around, trying to find something better. But we, as women of God, can have hope all the time, no matter what! When we have hope, we are always looking up – not looking down, and not looking around for something different.
I want to be a woman who looks up, and I know you do too. So sister, here are three things you’ll see when you look up.
Sometimes when hard things come into our lives, they take the best from us. Long lasting trials can drain us and wear us out. Our initial energy and faith gets slowly depleted until we find ourselves flat, hopeless and defeated. All that I can! attitude gets replaced with I can’t and I don’t want to apathy.
When a parent is ill for a long time, it can take the best from us. When a teenager is in full blown rebellion, it can take the best from us. When we lose a job, or our spouse does; when we deal with a chronic illness or are stuck in what feels like a dead end job or relationship – all of that can take the best from us.
Have you asked and asked and asked (and begged) God to change your circumstance? I sure have. When we carry a heavy burden for a long time, we get weary and worn down. An extended hospital stay. A hard marriage. An unfair project at work. A health issue. A chronic or even terminal diagnosis.
There are so many things in this life we wish God would change. We ask. He doesn’t always do what we ask when we ask, right?
I unloaded my frustrations to my friend Karen while talking on the phone the other day. Sometimes blindness makes me so tired that it just scrapes against the bottom of my soul, and it was one of those days.
I bet you know what I’m talking about; we’ve all had “one of those days.” You know, when you’re so overwhelmed that you can’t even put your jumbled feelings into words?
