You are Here, Aren’t Ya?

The fact that you are reading this now proves that you have survived your shittiest days. They have passed and yet you are still standing here, stronger than you ever were. We are made up of the cumulation of our worst days…and our best days too. They have shaped us and we are victorious.

That was actually my waking thought yesterday and boy did that prove to be my theme for the day.

My morning started out with my computer not working. I had to drive into the office and have IT fix it. That put me about 2 hours behind. I hit every traffic light, got behind every slow person and went through about 3 school and construction zones. My frustration was rising.

Then, when I got home, the computer still had problems…so I called IT and they did one of those remote-ins and tried fixing my computer. I had all of my emails that I had take care of minimized so that I could close them as I finished my tasks…and every single one of them disappeared! By then, I had over 20 voicemails, about 15-20 text messages and now, another 100+ emails that I had to go through (I get about 500+ per day). My self-imposed stress level was at my tipping point and the email disappearing set me over the edge.

I actually had a meltdown and I cried. Yeah, the almost 45 year old superstar loan officer cried. I totally freaked out…until I realized that I just needed to start praying. So I did. I asked God to bring me peace and calm…direction and patience. And He did.

I calmed down and laughed at myself as I started to redo my “to-do” list by searching through every single one of my emails (once they came back up) to find those ones that required my attention. I had to take a big gulp of my own advice. It worked though (so you should totally listen to me! Ha). Thank you, Jesus.

You see, that waking thought I had, was a definite premonition of things to come and it was a great reminder that each crappy moment will pass. It is inevitable.

I had to control my reaction to it. It was the only thing that I had control over. When I sat back and took a deep breath, I realized that my response needed to change. Through prayer and giving my burden (no matter how trivial it actually is) to God, He brought calm to me.

And I got pretty much every part of my work done. Phone calls all got returned. Emails replied to. Problems solved. 

My lesson for the day was a gentle reminder of, “This too shall pass.” No matter what you are going through right now – whether it be a small thing like mine was or something much more profound – use your past to prove to yourself that you will get through this too.

Today is a new day. I learned a great lesson. Doesn’t get much better than that.