The Good, The Bad, and God

I don't have time to write this blog post. I still have a TON of client work due today. I still have overdue fall challenge posts I was suspposed to be publishing here. I still have to announce that my freelance website has been completely revamped and that you should all go check it out: www.tiffanyaller.com.

All of that junk aside, here's why I'm posting today: because I have such a very important reminder for you.

Yes, YOU.

(Quick note: if you aren't a believer, now's a good time to exit. We'll see you at the next post.)

God loves you. 

God loves you when times are good.

God loves you when times are bad.

God loves you when YOU are bad.

God loves you when frustration takes over.

God loves you when blessings return.

(God wants you to know that even in the midst of the worst kinds of frustration, there's still blessings to be found - they never left you after all.)

Here's why I know this to be true.

My life has been less than perfect or ideal the past couple years. Looking through my Facebook memories this morning was a harsh reminder of how different my life used to be. How much easier, according to some pictures, or how much harder, according to others.

God was there with me through all of those moments listed in my history and through all of what I'm experiencing now. God even gave me a wink at the crosswalk this morning, but since ya'll will think I'm crazy over my "God wink" stories, I'll just keep that one to myself.

God was there with me when I felt like I had no one or nothing.

God was there with me when I felt like He'd surely abandoned me or didn't exist at all.

God was there when I was mad at Him.

God was still there when I got over my mad and gained better perspective while regaining my faith.

God was there for me during triumphs.

And God was there when everything came crashing down.

Far, far down.

God was there when the kids and I experienced our greatest challenges - those we kept entirely to ourselves and will likely never discuss with others.

And God was there when the sunlight came back and began lighting up our darkest spaces.

And God wanted me to share this message this morning. Because I started the day with frustration after frustration related to my work. One of my two laptops crashed. The other was slow to start this morning after barring me from working last night during a mandatory update. And then I was just missing the boat on some revisions I had to do for work but couldn't seem to get my mind to accomplish.

Then I got one great email from a new client that represents a pretty big financial win.

Then I got a second one, reporting statistics on the success of a marketing campaign I helped design, along with a request for future work.

Then I realized that for every frustration I experienced since I woke up at 3:30 this morning, I'd received an equivalent blessing.

And that's how I know God's there, always balancing the scale, always loving on me even when I'm so caught up in the moment that I forget to be as loving back as I should.

There's good. There's bad. And no matter what, there's always God.

God's Got This

I've been anxious and worrying a lot over the past six weeks...really, from the onset of my pneumonia before Thanksgiving. Lots of turmoil. Lots of bills. Lots of doctor appointments. Some changes already happening. Others coming soon. Uncertainty. Upheaval. And all that on top of a life that's already pretty chaotic.

So tonight, with only some of today's goals accomplished and even more on deck for tomorrow, I turn to Matthew 6:25-34 in the New Testament. Well-known words, yet somehow - sometimes - difficult to remember. Even when I stumble, God's got this; God's got me.

25Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns—and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his lifespan?

28And why do you worry about clothes? Consider how the lilies of the field grow: They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

31Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans pursue all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.

Watch My Sermon!

In better news, I was blessed to be able to deliver the sermon at my church yesterday for the second year in a row for United Methodist Women Sunday. My topic was "3 Lessons from Godly Women of the Bible." I didn't know it was being recorded, but it's now up on the church website if anyone is interested in listening to it. 

http://www.riveroaksumc.org/sermons