"Those" days

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person that's ever had a really rough day.  Or at least I'm probably not.  You know the kind.  The days that you get to the end of...or the middle of...and can hardly convince your body to stay awake because it's been so hard.  The days when everywhere you turn, plans are falling apart and things are going the "wrong" way.  Days when everything that can go wrong does.  Those days.  As in, "I'm having one of those days.

Today was one of those days.  It's not even over yet, because as much as I want to be asleep, here I sit at 10:30pm waiting for the last of the children to fall asleep.  My husband just got home from a 14 hour work day...a day that was supposed to be 8 hours and culminate in a night with friends.  I know he didn't love the schedule change, either.

But as I sit here thinking about the things that went wrong, I can't help thinking of some of the things that went right. 

Today my children all woke up happy, on their own.  It was a 2-hour delay day and I would have loved to sleep in, but the kids had other plans.  It was nice to have a morning snuggle with the kids.  It was nice to have a relaxed morning rather than the usual before-school rush.

Stinky hasn't spit up in several days!  And he's sleeping 6-7 hours straight most nights.  It's taking 3-a-day doses of medicine to accomplish both of these tasks, but he's eating and sleeping with relatively no trouble!

Little Lou passed her 2nd semester skills test at school today!  She has officially completed all the kindergarten "standards" with 4 months to go left in the school year.  We don't know yet what that means, exactly, other than that we've got a lot of work to do at home to keep her challenged.  Along those same lines, both of the last 2 days she's read 2nd grade reading level books to me with no help.  She's a bright little star in my book!

My sister came into town and we went out to dinner with my parents.  I have garlic breath and I probably undid all the good that I have done with exercise and healthier eating this week, but we had a nice dinner together and enjoyed a private room at one of our favorite restaurants.

As I look back at this long, "difficult" day, most of what I see is positive.  It reminds me that, in the moment, things seem hard.  In the moment, I don't know how I will make it to the end of the day.  In the moment, I can't see the next moment to even lunge forward. 

But ultimately God has a plan.  He's in control even when my days feel out of control (and believe me, on days like today I feel totally out of control).  All I have to do is lean on him, reach for him, hold tight to him, and I will make it to the end of the day.

Not just the day, either.  Can you imagine the joy when I get to the end of my life and look back?  When I can look at the days, weeks, months, years even, of hardship and struggle, and see the good that came of them?  My peace on days like today is knowing that I'm not alone.  It's knowing that whether or not I win the battle, I've already won the war.  (Yep...Jesus did that for me when he died for ME on the cross all those years ago.)

Thank you, Jesus, for holding me up on the days I don't know where to place my feet.  Thank you for being steadfast and true, even on...no, especially on...days like today.  Jesus loves me, this I know...