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By: Amanda Frittz
I started today out hoping that everything would go smoothly. Less than a half-hour into my day though I had already cleaned up a disastrous mess of poop and pee my dog had left behind after eating a sourdough starter. Not to mention countless other things, like breaking a wine glass as I threw out the recycling, and chasing my dog around the neighborhood when she escaped the garage. You could easily say my day started out by going all wrong.
I know it all sounds kind of silly, but when it’s happening to you one after the other it is NOT funny! It’s just plain frustrating. I know I had the phrase, “can’t I get a break?!?” running through my mind as I went from fixing one mess to the other.
We’ve all had these days. The days where everything you do manages to go wrong. They’re beyond frustrating and they remind you just how patient (or inpatient) you really are!
I’ve noticed that once I get in a bad mood it’s really easy for my flesh to be pessimistic and ruin the rest of my day because of it. That’s not good. Keeping a bad attitude isn’t productive for my family or me.
2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”’
It’s moments like these where I have to come to God and accept my weakness. I need to restart my day and rely on his strength and not my own.
Restart Your Day
For me, a restart looks like taking a step back from whatever I’m doing and giving myself a mental refresh followed by prayer or getting in the word. This is a great way to flip around a day that started out by going all wrong.
The mental refresh will be a little different for every person and every situation. Some things I find helpful are taking a shower, changing my outfit, making coffee, or something that I normally do at the beginning of the day.
This acts like a do-over and allows you to mentally restart your morning by redoing one your routine morning steps.
Once you’ve completed your do-over start your morning once again with God. Either start with a prayer or dive into his word. If your morning has been beyond what you can cope with, I recommend writing down a verse that you can come back to throughout the day.
He Has Given You Strength
Having a “battle verse” on hard days can be so helpful to getting through them! Sometimes even after you restart your day you might have harsh realities to face that you can’t manage on your own.
Luckily, we aren’t alone. God is with us and we are filled with his spirit. That means we already have the strength to get through the day!
Sometimes we just need to be reminded of this reality and wash our anxious minds with scripture that tell us the truth. Find some Bible verses that are an encouragement to you and put them in high traffic areas in your home (like the kitchen or bathroom).
Meditating and washing our minds with the word can help us rid all the lies and anxious thoughts we tell ourselves throughout the day.
Ask For Guidance and Self-Control
If we don’t have something, chances are we haven’t asked for it.
Galatians 5:22-23 “ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law”
If you’re having trouble with any of the above, ask God to help you in the areas where you are struggling. Ask for wisdom and discernment.
God is a perfect father, and he wants to gift us with the fruits of the spirit. He has already given us the power, but he gives us the power through him. If we are looking for the strength from within ourselves we are often going to fall short.
Invite him into your life and ask for wisdom and guidance in your current situation (this can also be a great idea when looking for “battle verses”). Receiving heart prompts are a very real way that we can grow our relationship with God and become more like him.
Give Yourself Grace
Sometimes when your day starts out by going all wrong, you might not have the time to accomplish all the things you had initially planned.
Unplanned events, and restarting your day takes time. Give yourself grace, and reschedule your day according to your allotted time. Make a list of all your must to-do’s for the day and schedule them. Then, if you have time after your top priorities you can move on to the secondary tasks.
Any of the non-immediate tasks can wait. Give yourself some grace, and plan out how you will catch up later on in the week.
Take Your Thoughts Captive
I can easily get in a sour mood after a rough start to my day. However, that doesn’t end up helping me at all. It just ruins what could have turned out to be a good day.
I’ve learned how much of an impact my attitude has on the rest of my day. If I have a bad day and I expect it to keep going bad it will. However, if I have a day where everything is going wrong yet I choose to believe it will be a good day it usually ends up better. Our attitudes matter.
Once you’ve taken the time to restart your day and get with God take a minute to tell yourself the rest of your day is going to be better. Mindset makes a huge difference! I’m telling you this will help.
It’s not enough to do a restart you have to have the right mindset after your do-over.
Sometimes a devotional can be the perfect thing to help you with this! I currently am going through the 100 Devotions to Know God is Holding You Close.