Have you ever heard the phrases, “God will never give you more than you can handle” or “He’ll always provide an escape from your temptation?” Well, I have a new one, “He’ll never let me sit in my self-pity for long before putting things into perspective.”
Without fail, every time I start feeling overwhelmed or even in a state of emotional self-pity, God paints a picture to put things into perspective!

Last year we had some issues with the closing of our house. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen and I felt very overwhelmed to the point it started affecting me emotionally. The truth is, I wasn’t trusting God! Anyways, as the kids were playing at the park I noticed a beautiful little girl, with no hair, on a swing. As I looked closer, I saw her mom pushing her on the swing. The mom and the girl were laughing and enjoying that sunny day. The mom wasn’t sitting on a bench pouting about her daughter having cancer; no she was seizing the moments she had with her daughter! My heart dropped and tears followed down my cheeks! Okay, God, I hear you!

Then just a few months ago I was having another “moment”. I was stressed over a money situation that went wrong because of a miscommunication with Southwest. I was so frustrated and my outward appearance was showing it. I was short with my kids and I felt yet stressed again! As I stood in line to return something at Target, another beautiful girl, without any hair, caught my eye! She was smiling big as she looked up at her dad walking beside her. Again, tears filled my eyes! Okay, God, I hear you!

For almost two weeks my kids have had the flu! The first week the girls had it and now my little guy has it. I haven’t been able to do much around the house because of their sickness and they are behind on schoolwork, which stresses me out! Today I dropped the girls off at their co-op by themselves, I know they are in good hands, but they aren’t my hands. It’s hard for me to ask for help from others, especially when it comes to my crew. I personally feel like they are my full responsibility, but their brother is sick and he can’t be around other kids. As I dropped them off my heart started pounding. I began to pray for them and for myself. I felt totally overwhelmed and stressed to the max. As I was texting my dad, he reminded me of my cousin that just had brain surgery for the second time in only a few months and he hasn’t woke up yet. At that second, I felt all anxiety leave! Okay, God, I hear you!

I share these stories to say, life is never easy, there are terrible days, but it could always be worse! God doesn’t want us to sit and dwell on ourselves; nothing good can come out of that. He wants us to pray and give it to him, then go and help someone else. To experience freedom from self-pity, stress, and anxiety, we have to take our eyes off our current situation and ourselves! And we need to ask ourselves, “do we trust God?” When we fully trust him, we can exhale and know He has our back and He will work it out!

Thank you, God, for loving me so much that you interrupt my self-pity and paint just the right picture to put things into perspective!

Today, I want to lift up every child with cancer and every parent that is watching their child fight this terrible disease. And specifically for my cousin, who is in the hospital right now! I pray you heal his body and wake him up! In Jesus Name! Amen!