Sometimes It Hurts

Sometimes it hurts. We feel forgotten or ignored. I’m sure it happens to most of us. It happened to me last weekend.

I’d emailed a few former coworkers three weeks earlier to say hello and to tell them I missed them. None responded. Why? Were they too busy? Did they not miss me too? And the friend I texted? She didn’t respond either.

Although I didn’t know the reasons for their silence, Romans 12:14 instructed me on how to handle the hurt.

Speak blessing, not cursing, over those who reject
and persecute you. (TPT)

No one persecuted me, but I felt rejected. I prayed for God to bless them, to help them in their struggles, and for His will to be done in and through their lives. I reasoned that maybe life was tough for them, and they didn’t want to share—too personal. Or perhaps they were busy but intended to respond later and then forgot. 

After spending time in my Bible and praying for them, I listened to worship music and lifted my hands to “House of the Lord” by Phil Wickham. I have a hard time staying in the mulligrubs while worshipping my Lord.  

I also put on my armor as stated in Ephesians 6:10-20 and prayed the “Warrior’s Prayer.” [Click link for a pdf copy warriors-prayer-printable.pdf (com.s3.amazonaws.com).]

None of my feelings were new to the Lord. Christ understood rejection. He recognized how I felt and offered me comfort and strength as I honored Him.

Sometimes it hurts. The evil one wanted me to spend my day in despair, but I had too much to do. Through Bible reading, prayer, worshipping, and putting on my armor, I found victory and peace in my Lord and Savior.

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A special thank you to J.D. Wininger for introducing me to the “Warrior’s Prayer” in his blog post: Preparing for Battle - J.D. Wininger, Christian Author (jdwininger.com).

Photo by Kyle Glenn - Unsplash

Coming Clean

A few weeks ago, I made this comment on my blog—Peace Came in the Morning.

“My Echo thinks she knows me well. She said something like, ‘Since you listen to worship music, I’ll play the Amazon worship channel and Chris Tomlin.’”

I must come clean and retract the statement, “. . . she knows me well.” She does not know me at all! When I asked her a few weeks ago to play music, she made a very wise decision, knew what I liked to listen to, and offered to play it for me. All good until this past week.

She called me a dweeb!

All I asked her to do was turn off my music. Time to leave the house to go to work. She must have really liked my worship songs and wanted to listen longer. I can certainly understand. Chris McClarney is a worship pastor in the Nashville, Tennessee, area and a member of Jesus Culture Band. I listen to him many mornings as I get ready for my day. My Echo must have grown accustomed to listening to him too. She wasn’t happy with me when I asked her to stop.

Another area of coming clean is regarding my Healthy New Year blog. I strived to take baby steps to better health. The areas of improvement and results for January follow.

• Lose weight—exceeded my goal of 2 pounds a month.

• Exercise more—averaged over 7,600 steps per day which exceeded my 6,500 steps per day goal. However, there were two days I did not meet my goal of 6,500 steps.

• Get more sleep—goal was to consistently get 6½ hours each night as recorded by my Fitbit. Not successful—had 12 nights during the month with less than 6½ hours. Although, I did average over 6½ hours per night overall.

• Stress reduction—the one I like the best. But it’s also the hardest for me to track. As I stated on my, Healthy New Year blog, the increased walking and extra sleep helped along with continued Bible reading, studying, and praying. I also listened to a lot of worship music to help reduce stress. I did all the other items on my list as well, but not as often as I could have. This is my greatest area in need of improvement.

For February, I hope to continue my weight loss, bump my steps up to 8,500 per day, raise my average sleep per night to 6¾ hours, and continue to work on reducing stress.

How are your New Year’s resolutions coming along? Do you need to come clean too?

Thanks for reading!