Sending Smiles

You know that feeling when life presses in?

When you cling so tightly to the Lord - knowing this won't get the best of you, but also hoping you still have your sanity {or at least a measure of your hair color} when it's all over?

When you recite to yourself the list {and it's usually long!} of people who are facing battles way bigger and far more significant in the grand scheme than yours...and you urge yourself to count your blessings?

When you clutch those blessings tightly and try to hold them up as a shield against the one more blow that's sailing toward your face?

You know those days?

Such was my yesterday. I wasn't feeling super great. Not sick. Certainly nowhere near sick enough to warrant a sick day...but sluggish enough that I felt I needed to drag myself out of bed and through the morning routine and out to the car.

All the way to work, I thought about our housing situation...the giant weight that looms over both of us as we try our best to wait for God's timing without questioning Him about why any sort of sale is taking so long.

I was shaken out of my thoughts when {almost to work} I looked up to see a semi grill in my face. I was waiting in the turn lane at a stoplight for my chance to turn left, and Mr. Semi was making a right onto my road and I was in his way. I couldn't back up because of traffic behind me, and it all happened so fast that I just started having majorly rapid heartbeat. Somehow {aka God} he missed me, and well awake...I continued to work.

About 3 minutes later, I waited in line four cars back from a fender bender, while the two drivers exchanged info .

And when I got to work, Ryan informed me that he'd also just arrived at his job - and his truck {you remember Ol' Trusty, right???} died. Again.

There were a few more things mixed in, but those are the highlights. It just weighed in.

I sent a quick message to one of my friends to ask for prayer - and I told her I was doing my best to remember that this is the day the Lord has made, and I was trying to rejoice and be glad, but mostly I just felt like the truck really ran over me.

She didn't lecture me - just listened and gently reminded me that there were blessings to be found in the fact that Ryan wasn't stranded on his way to work, the semi did not, in fact, crunch me, and I managed to miss the fender bender.

And then, because sometimes cheer comes in forms more tangible than the mental counting of blessings, she sent this:

...with this attached:

Mission accomplished.

I inhaled deeply:

It's true, you know. They really are the friendliest flower.

I loved it. Did it fix all my problems? Oh goodness no. Did it remind me that there's beauty in the mess? You bet. Did it encourage me that Ryan and I are not alone in this boat that sometimes feels very separated from any sort of normalcy? Absolutely it did. Did it give me a visual reminder that I'm loved and cared for?

I am thankful for all the good and I am hopeful that this season will pass and we will be stronger and more united because of it. But as it rages on around me, I'm thankful for a friend who sent a smile - of the friendliest, lasting kind.