The day started with sleeping til I woke up, to the sun streaming in the window, and various pets nudging me to get up and get going. Feed me! Let me out! It held all sorts of promise of unfolding in that lazy/wonderful sort of way. Waffles and the newspaper, Starbucks coffee, time spent on the deck with a book eating lunch, serenaded by the screech of hungry baby birds.

So how did weariness, discouragement seep in? Why, at the end of the day, am I sitting here feeling a bit beat up? I could give you the list, Barb's grandson has a doctor's appointment tomorrow to check out some symptoms of concern; a day spent paying bills is never fun; add in a word wrongly spoken (God, will I ever learn?), being defensive over something small ('love is not easily offended..."); giving advice too quickly, a bit of this and that causing concern, or discouragement, or frustration. Sometimes it was the rest of the world, sometimes I was my own worst enemy. Either way, at some point in the day, morning sunshine was hard to recall.

Oh, what fragile creatures we are! And how gracious is He towards us. Sometimes it takes so little to throw us off kilter. To make us lose perspective - how blessed I am, how small are my trials, how much I am loved. How easily I start looking around rather than up. How quickly I forget that, not only did 'Mama tell us we'd have days like this', He did too.

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you WILL have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

Days like this, I tend to think one of God's best gifts to us is bedtime. Climbing into bed, laying my head down on my pillow and closing my eyes to this day. Turning loose of the day's failures, the 'work of my hands' that ended less than wonderful, in spite of giving it my best shot. He also told us this:

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9