…about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matt. 6:34
This has been an absolutely necessary reminder for me this week! Without it, I’m not sure I would have made it out of bed this morning. Each day, something else has piled on that’s required a high level of emotional energy, and I was starting to feel like I could completely crumble under the weight of it all. I’m not trying to sound and/or be dramatic by any stretch–only honest. I write a lot about all of the beautiful things going on in my life most days, and today I just need to be real about the hard stuff, too. Undoubtedly, there’s beauty in and amongst the tough things that come our way, but I think it’s terribly hard to see at times when you’re in the middle of them. If I had allowed myself to worry much past the next 24 hours on any given day this week, I don’t think I’d have had any resilience left to enter into the next set.
The beauty in the hard things for me this week is twofold:
1) I have needed to press into God like crazy, remembering at all times how faithful He is in all circumstances. I’ve had to lean in with more prayer, more reflection, more quieting of my own spirit in order to be led through a rough patch with God’s help.
2) I have been able to see God’s hand in each situation. I don’t have to understand the entire picture to realize that He is responding to my requests and to the requests of others–and that he is changing the world around me for good. When I worry too far into the future, I often miss what God has for me in the present.
I went to bed last night with a total lack of peace on multiple levels. Even pressing through as best as I knew how, I still felt helpless, hopeless and weary. Today when I woke up, despite my attempts to shake last night’s difficult space, I found things much the same. Still, I prayed, asked for help, trusted, and had to move forward into the day.
Not all parts of it were easy, I’ll admit, but I never pray for easy. (I pray for things like wisdom, grace, joy, discernment and peace, hoping that things might begin to feel a little bit easier in the process…and it usually helps:) Instead of being all bogged down by tomorrow, this weekend, next month, I just tried to keep my thoughts to today. And it worked.
At the other end of what started out as a rocky Thursday, I can say that God showed up–miraculously and willingly and obviously on multiple counts. Instead of crying out of frustration and pain, my tears today were sourced from joy. I know that if I’d been more preoccupied with other things, I would have missed the blessing of watching God in action. Whole, answered prayers. Peace where it doesn’t naturally flow, grace where I need it the most.
Tomorrow is another day, and with it, I might face new things that challenge, create worry, stress me to my limits or throw me curve balls. This is exactly why tomorrow’s material is just plenty. It’s all I need.
When I (we) take one day at a time, it honors God’s guidance to us. Then perhaps, with less clutter to bog us down, we can be certain to notice all of the places where He shows up. Our yokes become manageable, our burdens lighter. We can fall into bed joyful, thankful, encouraged. And we can trust that there will be enough left over to meet tomorrow’s needs.
one day at a time,
mm
Cara Thompson (@caramae0605) says
Molly, you have spoken beautifully the very lesson that God has been teaching me through this last year. It takes time to fully let the worry go, but gaining a real and present sense of God’s guidance in each moment is worth the pain of “letting go.” Before I go on any further, and attempt to rehearse everything you just said, I want to say thank you for this post! It is so encouraging. And I’m with you in those moments of pain-turned-joy:tears only because prayers were answered. Confirmation that God-really-heard-me. His love is truly amazing.
🙂
Cara