What a Monday it was today. I would like to say that my day was filled with nothing but love and rainbows, however, that’s not always reality. We all have what I like to call mehh days, you wake up with an understanding that today is just one of those days, you look at the clock and accept the fate the day has brought about. You know… the days when you have to say the same thing more than 7 times before the kids begin to think about listening. Today was that day. On top of that, add a not so feeling well momma and its a perfect recipe to create chaos. Today, the kiddos watched a little more tv than normal and my productivity level was running at its lowest level.

How does your family fight the good fight on days like this?

After one of the longest days we’ve had in a while and punishments for behavior had to be tallied up just to keep up with who got what…. our night time routine began. Brush your teeth came out of my mouth about four times and eventually we were ready for prayers. Our family has always strived to have a nightly family prayer, most days we focus more attention to this time, and others, we say a quick prayer before everyone falls asleep. If I am honest, tonight, I wanted to say a quick prayer and be done with the day…. however, a quicken in my spirit directed me to focus my attention on this moment.

For the nights that we focus more attention to the family prayer, we start off by watching a couple of the kids favorite worship videos and then we do a devotion (they truly enjoy Douglas Talks more than any other devotional). After the fruit of the spirit song, we listened to the Douglas Talks video about being Thankful in this hard year (2020). After watching the video, I always ask the kids what they have learned, before we explain anything else in more detail. After hearing what they learned I reiterated the importance of understanding how God can take bad situations and turn them around and work it out for His good (Romans 8:28 my verse for the year!).

Side note: During these talks, Daddy and Mommy are letting the kids take the lead on the conversation, we typically ask them a question and walk them through what the Bible says about the topic at hand.

Tonight, we asked the kids to tell us one of the worst things they have had to encounter this year and then my husband and I answered the same question. We do this so they can understand that adults go through the same process… just in a different magnitude. Tonight, we heard answers from getting spankings to being away from people they love, and other things in between. We listened to each answer as they explained their reasons and how they felt. Then after each of us answered, I asked them to now think about their bad situation and find out how God turned it around for good. It was interesting to watch them walk through the process of how God was able to take a devastating moment and make it good.

After we all gave explanations of how we saw God working out our situations for good, our youngest asked if we could sit on the floor and hold hands to pray. This isn’t something we typically do, but my husband and I have set the atmosphere in our home to allow the kids the opportunity to take faith steps. And honestly, after the day we had, we understood this must be a God moment.. so we went with it! (I would like to add here, the significance of listening to the small requests of God, a small act of obedience could bring a big turn around!) We sat in a circle, held hands, and allowed the youngest to start the prayer. She said a few things before the big statement, but it was when she said,

“Father God, Holy one in Heaven, you take bad things and turn them good, you can take the whole world and turn it around because you are holding it in your hands. We know you are working…”

this statement impacted every person in the family. There was a sudden shift in the atmosphere and suddenly we all looked up and smiled almost simultaneously. We all agreed with her in that moment. The impact of her statement was amazing. Each person took her statement and used it in their own personal story, for me, it was a reminder of how Great our God us! How the Earth is physically turning around and how God is able to make a spiritual turnaround happen as well!

After a hard day, it was just the reminder needed to re-focus our attention on Him. I would like to leave you with this scripture as a reminder. When we are weak, his strength is our refuge.

We serve a mighty good God who in all things is LOVE. Our children understood that their punishments today didn’t mean we no longer love them, instead, (because we tell them this often) they understand that failures produce opportunities for growth! When life has you feeling down and out, remember there is an opportunity to grow stronger in your relationship with God!

Prayer: Father, I thank you for being greater than my emotions/feelings. Thank you for being so good to us daily, thank you for always being present, even in moments we push you away. Please forgive me for not appreciating your goodness often enough. Father, let us remember that when we have mehh days in our own eyes, you have said it is a good day! It’s a good opportunity to find you in our day. Let us have faith like a child and come to you with the boldness to not only turn our situation around, but the whole world! In Jesus name, amen.