I think the biggest challenge of having faith is consistently having faith. It's easy to have faith when our kids are healthy, money is plentiful or careers are skyrocketing. It may be a little harder when we lose a loved one, we have to deal with an unfaithful partner, money is tight or our health is not good.
Here is the way I look at it. If God never leaves me why should I leave Him? He is with me in my darkest hours, right by my side. When I sin it is Him that is the first to say He forgives me. When I fall it is Him that is the first to pick me up. Life is not perfect and it's not always fair. God doesn't do these things to us. As I have said many, many times... we live in a broken world and we have choices. We choose how we deal with life's circumstances. We choose our actions, behavior and attitude every day.
My in-laws kept the boys on Christmas Eve day because I had to work. Garrison was exhausted from not getting enough sleep a few nights in a row so I wasn't surprised when I went to pick him up and he basically had a meltdown over nothing. He was pretty much complaining about anything and everything and told me this was not going to be a good Christmas. I told him he had been so good all year and didn't want to get on Santa's naughty list on Christmas Eve. Garrison said he wanted Christmas to be bad. That may sound ridiculous but I totally get it. You know when everything just seems to be going wrong and you almost wish for bad things to keep happening? It's like you just want to wallow in a sea of self pity. After giving him a huge hug (because that's just what we all need sometimes) I looked him right in the eye and told him he didn't really want to have a bad Christmas. I asked him who the only one responsible was for him having a good or bad Christmas and he pointed to himself. I asked him who the only person is that decides if he's going to be happy or sad. He pointed to himself. Maybe we all need to do that sometimes. Just look in the mirror and tell ourselves that we and we alone are responsible for the choices we make. We are responsible for our attitude and deciding whether we want to have a good day or a bad day.
God is ALWAYS with us, no matter what life throws at us. We just have to have faith and choose to see Him or find Him in everything. And in the midst of hard times it is our responsibility, and ours alone, to keep trucking through this crazy life.
We had a wonderful Christmas, even though Daddy had to go to work for a few hours and missed lunch. Ethan also had a great first birthday. I think his best gift was seeing snow for the first time.
Here is my baby boy the morning of Christmas/his 1st birthday! I think he knows he's one!
And some more Christmas Day fun!
Jewels*
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