Please tell me that you have seen the “Peace and Blessings” video, and that you read that title in her voice.
Anyways, now that you have been completely sidetracked by that very unique, yet hilarious video…
That was not at all the point of this post. It’s actually a more serious post, one that I felt compelled to write after I was incredibly humbled through a rather rough morning where God still chose to pour his grace out on me.
Twice this week, in big ways, God has FLUNG his grace and blessings at me, without me even asking or expecting it. I know that God gives grace and blessings each and every day, but these two instances are big, and are very humbling.
I’ve been struggling lately with how mundane life feels. Being sick for three months straight and being on the pregnancy roller coaster have really played into that. I honestly also don’t know what pregnant women are talking about when they say they feel beautiful. That part of pregnancy has not arrived for me! The winter has also really played into that. The temps have not risen above freezing in almost two months now, and I’ve had ENOUGH. I have actually cried over the weather once or twice, or maybe three or more times in these past couple weeks. For an outdoorsy “African” like me, the winter is tough. I hate it. It seems like I wake up, lay around feeling sick/depleted of energy, freeze my butt off, go to work, come home and cook, freeze, and go to bed. Only to start the cycle all over again. And I’m fed up.
About two weeks ago, I lost my wallet….at Wal-mart of all places. I actually didn’t realize that I had lost it, because we weren’t spending throughout the month of January, and I really had nothing that I used in it except my cards. When we finally realized it was lost, we racked our brains to think of the last place we had seen it. We then concluded that I lost it at Wal-mart, and immediately checked our bank account to make sure that no one was using my card. First grace blessing: no one has used the card! That meant it wasn’t stolen, and we didn’t have to worry about that. At that point, I concluded that it really wasn’t worth stressing over. I had no cash in the wallet, a card that apparently wasn’t stolen, my drivers license (that desperately needs to be updated), and my library card. Other than that, there was nothing of importance in the wallet (Second grace blessing!). However, Theo went to Wal-mart, and decided to check in at customer service: and there was my wallet! Wow! I didn’t even pray for it, and God gave it back to me! Yay! HUGE grace blessing!
Last night, our area of Ohio got hit with about 5-8 inches of snow, and freezing rain on top of it. Of course, Theo happened to be at work, and ended up getting off work right when the worst of it hit. That meant that he was driving home in that weather. I was worried sick and couldn’t get to sleep until Theo arrived safely home. He finally arrived home a little after 1 am, and said that he had actually gone off into a ditch, but didn’t want to tell me because he knew I would freak out. I am SO thankful that he arrived home safely (BLESSING, BLESSING, BLESSING!!!). However, that meant that I had pushed my pregnant body 4 hours past it’s bedtime. We finally got to sleep, but when I woke up in the morning, I was a wreck. I was mad that I still had to go to work, that I had to be awake and that it was so cold outside. I was crying over stupid things and dragging my butt to get out of bed and get ready for work. I crashed into my journal and was just crying and praying that I would somehow have a good attitude for the day. I was literally writing the words, “I don’t WANT to have a good attitude and I don’t even know where to begin to have a good attitude” when Theo brought me my phone. It was my boss, calling to tell me that I could have the day off. (WOAH, grace blessing right there!)
Anyways, this is a long post already, and it didn’t have any point except to remind myself and my readers that God’s grace and blessings are so real, and we just need to look for them. Sometimes we need a big one to get us out of the rut, but sometimes we just need to look around and see God’s amazing grace in blessings in the simple things, too. Feel free to comment, to encourage my heart, about where and when you have seen God’s blessings this week- big or little! Hearing other stories always helps me feel encouraged, too.
And for my snow day…I plan to lay in bed and read and drink decaffinated tea and actually fit a workout in, and cook some dinner for my man, browse Pinterest and work on this here blog. Then, I think I will try to tackle my attitude about the winter by pulling back the curtains and looking at the beautiful snow.
