You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. – Jim Rohn
This saying was exactly what I needed today. I’ve gotten off course with who I am. I used to “have it all together” and have a clean house and cook for my family and do things for my friends and be happy all the time.
But over the last couple of months things have changed. I can’t think clearly. There’s always something worrying me. My house is never in tip top shape. We eat out more than we ever have before. I can’t get energy and focus. And then I realized it was worry. Worry had taken over my life. Worry over things in which I have no control. I feel like my quiet time and my prayer life have grown so much more over the last couple of months though. I’ve even been doing a Bible study titled OVERCOMING WORRY. And I realized that the study came at just the right time and it’s through that study that I made it through the last couple of months and didn’t have a break down!! Not that I didn’t worry but that I went to the Lord every day, every hour, every time that worry came to me. Worries still kept coming at me, but I continuously went to God in prayer. In 2 Corinthians 12:10(b) Paul says, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
I was weak in my household duties and my friendship duties but I was strong in my faith and strong in my perseverance with prayer and study and being there in support of my family. (Sidenote: My husband is Mr. Wonderful as he never complains about anything and also encourages me to just keep going and supports me no matter what. For that I am so very thankful as I went through this low time in my life.)
So today God woke me up and said, “let’s get back on track with these other things.” He knows that being a good wife, mother, housekeeper, cook and friend are very important to me. So I believe he took me down this path of worry and trials to grow me and strengthen me in faith and now he’s letting me find my joy again now that I realize my joy is in Him alone.
I know He wants me to have happiness in doing for my family and others and He is going to give me focus and energy to get back on my path of imitating some of the characteristics of the Proverbs 31 woman. That makes me happy. Now that I know that I can trust Him with my worries and that His plan is better than mine and that I don’t have to fix it or manipulate it or control it, I send worry away and let Him handle it.
As in the saying above, I have to take some personal responsibility because I can’t change the circumstances, the seasons or the wind. God is in control of all of that but I can change how I handle worry – how I turn things over to God and NOT worry. So today, I am taking personal responsibility to kick myself back in gear and together God and I are going to handle this. He’s got the worry part. In the meantime, I think I’ll go do some laundry, wash some dishes and get supper in the crockpot for my family.
Thank you, Lord, for being in control and helping me see how weak I really am but how strong YOU can make me when I lean on you.
