When life is hard keep this in mind

Life is hard right now.

Just the other night I didn’t have enough money in the budget for groceries. I guess I could have stopped payment on the student loan, but that was too much paper work to file just to avoid a penalty so I instead took out the credit card that I swore I’d never use again, (why you cut up credit cards in the first place), and ate out every night this week.

Life felt so out of my control that in my mind at the time it what didn’t matter if I put an extra $20 on the credit card. It’s not like we have extra money in the budget to pay towards debt anyway.

But I thought to myself just last week when Jordan came home from being in the hospital for 5 days that life is going to be hard no matter what.

By that I mean that there is always something that is going on in life that seems hard at the time. But the more I have thought about it we are all going to face hard times at some point in our lives. That just comes with living in a broken world. No matter how much we try to prevent bad things from happening we all will face challenging times in life. If you haven’t yet, you just haven’t lived long enough.

So instead of being surprised that life is hard, I try to do my best to get through it.  I take a step back and really think about the scope of my problems in context to the world. They are miniscule. More tragic and devastating things have happened to people my age, so what makes me think I am the exception? It’s all about perspective. I don’t say all that to minimize hardship because while in the midst of trails it really does suck and it’s hard. 

But when you really think about it, if it weren’t this, then it would be something else.

I know this hard season in my life will end. It may not end on my time line or as quick as I would like it to, but in my logical mind I know this too will pass. So what matters is how I handle my attitude towards my current situation in life.

Ultimately God is in control and He knows my problem and this will pass so I will live the best I can in these circumstances that are less than ideal.

That is the mindset with which I am able to get though Jordan’s multiple hospitalizations the past few months and stay positive.

Because I know that if it were not this trial that God has allowed than it would be something else; some other hardship, or trial or suffering or something that God has allowed to grow us into the image of Christ.

I trust that God has given me the strength to bear up under this trail and come out a better follower, a better wife, and to look more like Jesus. I know that good things come to those who wait, I know that it is good for a young person to endure hard seasons in their youth, I know the promises of God and His saving gospel and all this is what gets me through long days and long nights when my husband is away from me in a hospital and I am left all alone. 

So for now I will thank God for the time that I have and for blessing me with a persevering husband and for a life that is pretty good.