Another Ordinary Day

It’s another ordinary day.

You woke up to your three-year-old whining, “I don’t feel gooood.” You stumble into the kitchen to find last night’s dishes still piled in the sink. You are days overdue on the laundry, and your six-year-old is yelling from her bedroom, “Don’t forget, Mom, it’s my turn to take the snacks to Brownies today.”

Most of us have been there . . . waaaay tooo often!

What’s a girl to do when she has reached her last nerve and all she wants to do is climb back into bed and pull the covers over her head?…

Stop, breathe, and remind herself that she is not alone.

I read the following quote this morning:

There is no event so commonplace but that God is present within it, always hidden, always leaving you room to recognize Him or not to recognize Him . . . because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and lift itself is grace. ~Frederick Buechner (American Writer and Theologian)

“Life itself is grace!”

After reading The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning, I began a daily habit that is helping me manage my “ordinary days” and my not-so-ordinary days as well. Manning invites his readers to say the following prayer often throughout the day: “Abba, Father . . . I belong to You.” 

Those simple words remind me that I am not alone. My Heavenly Father is with me. He is in control. In His presence I just need to do the next five minutes, the five after that, and the five after . . .

I can do five minutes at a time.

I can do an ordinary day.

 He said to me, “My grace is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak.” 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 (TNIV)

 I can do all this through Him (Christ) who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13