I come to you today to ask that you give me a better day tomorrow.
Amen
I often find myself praying this prayer as bad days come and go. Sometimes we have a bad day, or a bad week, and we wonder why. God would never intentionally give us a bad day, right? What about those times when God stacks one bad day on top of another? Those types of weeks seem to drag on forever. I recently found myself in one of those situations.
It all started on Monday, I was working on a gift for these ladies at my college when I dropped the mugs I was working on and broke them. I ended up not finishing their gift and I haven't gotten to fix another one, since I've been too busy.
Tuesday was the day that got to the bad part the quickest. I was getting ready for 6 AM conditioning as I started fixing my hair. (By fixing my hair, I mean straightening down the cowlick that sticks up in the back of my head.) Everything was going fine until 1,) I burnt the entirety of my finger which I would then have to lift with, and 2.) I dropped my hot straightener in a sink of running water.
Wednesday wasn't too bad except for the fact that it rained... a lot. Our town actually flooded a bit and they had to cancel school for the local public school children. It wasn't bad walking to class until I stepped in a huge puddle and got my pants wet. Later that night my teammate and I ordered a pizza for dinner, which didn't arrive until an hour and a half later.
Thursday, oh Thursday, how could I forget you? I began by doing some last many preparations for the first official nursing test of the program. I was SO excited, I knew the material and I was ready for this test. I began taking the exam, 50 questions, multiple choice, and online. I noticed myself flagging a lot of questions for review, meaning I was unsure of the correct answer. I went back. reviewed my answers once again, and submitted the test. Just like that I had FAILED the first test of what would be the rest of my college career.
Friday, the last day of the week, and also the first Indoor track meet of the new season. I was nervous, but boy was I excited. I had high expectations for his meet just to get there and let myself down. My times weren't great, my placement was even worse (last place in both events,) how could this be possible?? I couldn't decided whether I wanted to cry or to just laugh at how dumb I had been by getting my hopes up. But then I took my shoes off and noticed something... the socks I had just bought earlier this week.
"I am blessed."
Three little words that changed everything. I am blessed. Looking back on the week I had, I can find individual blessings from God each day. On Monday I was blessed with a small college and staff that know and care about me. On Tuesday I see that I have running water and an opportunity to do the sport I love, even if it is early in the morning. On Wednesday I am reminded of the times when my Mom and I used to play in the puddles just to see who could get the muddiest. Wednesday also showed me that I have been given food and teammates to make memories with. Thursday showed me that I am blessed with the opportunity to further my education and learn new things on topics I enjoy. Then Friday, that final day, I was blessed with lungs and feet that would take me on a journey, regardless of the speed I was going.
God draws out plans for our days before they even occur. Good, or bad, he knows what we will be doing and where we will be going. Each day comes with a blessing in disguise. God's book is full of them. You've got to take a moment to reach out to him and say, "Thank You, God," rather than, "Tomorrow, God," because sometimes while it seems like we're falling apart and our days are full of rain, we have to look for that rainbow, God's promise to the world.
Psalms 139:16 says:
"Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."
God saw us before we were born, he wrote our days out before any of them even occurred. It's reassuring to know the blessings we have in life are from God himself and his book is full of them. We must take each day as it comes, for that's how God intended it to be. Blessed are we to be children of God, Blessed are we to be pages in his book.
