Day 10

Yesterday, I was given a bouquet of flowers from a stranger. I do not even know her name. She simply evaluated my shopping cart, with the four children hanging off of it and the worn look on my face as I returned my whim purchases that put me over budget. (One of these days I will master the art of calculating while monitoring children!) An act of kindness. A glimpse of hope. A reminder that even on my worst days when I feel myself or everything around me sinking, God is always present. To lift me up. To carry me through. To fill every moment with wonder.

The journal continues:

Today, when all was awry, I went down to the basement and seriously prayed and walked away a stronger mom. "I will go in the strength of the Lord God..." 

...I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine only. (Psalm 71:16) 

For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)

Christ liveth in me. (Galatians 2:20)

My Dare:

To keep my thoughts in submission to Christ. To pray and to preach to myself until I am thinking clearly again. To not allow myself to wallow in self-pity or to feel defeated or discouraged - 

To be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. 

If so much of the Christian life is dependent on the Lord, what is our part in sanctification? Join me tomorrow as we continue in the second chapter of Philippians and learn our role as justified believers. Only, there is no "we" or "our" in this challenge. Paul pulls each of us aside, and makes it expressly personal.