Day #14

(I'm a few days behind... forgive me!)

Day #14: This bad time you’re going through right now is merely IN your life. It’s not your whole life.

Okay, before going any further, read the above statement one more time.

Today (technically yesterday, since it’s now after midnight), I woke up in a cranky mood. As the day proceeded, everything I tried to do seemed to fall apart or have technical difficulty. I tried to be productive with the day but it felt like I was treading water, just trying to stay afloat. It was not my best day. However, I had to keep thinking that if I’m blessed with tomorrow, it’d be a new day, and hopefully a better one. My bad day was just one day IN my week… doesn’t mean I have to let it define my entire week, or for the purpose of this blog, my entire life.

We’re going to have bad days. There will be disappointing days. Day we question if we’re doing what we’re meant to do. Days that we’ll wish we could go back or forward instead of being in that particular moment. However, in all of these days (which could be back-to-back-to-back— you know the kind of week I’m talking about— or could be over a series of a lifetime), we must remember that these are just moments in our life and do not define what our entire life will be.

I’m a fairly dramatic person— sometimes for comedic relief and I am fully aware of it, and other times I really just am dramatic. I can remember a few times in my college years that I would call home, dramatically sobbing (however, first declaring that I indeed was alive and not in any danger to ease the worry of my parents) and declare that I would never make it through this or that, let alone make it through college. In that moment, I thought that bad time was my entire life falling to shambles, instead of just a moment of life that I happened to be in. My mom’s favorite line to use in my dramatic moments is “In five years, is this really going to matter?” Well, it has been several years since those dramatic phone calls to home, and to be honest, I can’t remember what a single one of them was specifically about.

I say all of this to remind you that no matter what is going on in your life right now that may not seem most desirable, do not let it define your outlook on the future, or outlook on life. Yes, things happen that alter our lives tremendously, but life will continue to go on and we must choose to process and learn from the tough times, and keep moving forward.

A verse that I’ve clung to for many, many years now tells me that “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope, and a future.” –Jeremiah 29:11

This bad time you’re going through right now is merely IN your life. It’s not your whole life.