dead of summer

Have you ever gone through a hard time? No one is immune to problems & struggles. Sometimes they can be waiting around every corner you turn! Attitude determines a lot of how you handle what is happening around you, or to you. We have to look for the good in everything. If we can’t find anything good about a situation, then it’s still okay. We just need to be patient. It is necessary, that we all understand, nothing stays the same. If things are not to your liking, if they are going really bad, & I mean REALLY. BAD, it will pass. Nothing will stay the same forever. Just as if things are going wonderful & over the top. Enjoy it. It won’t last.

So, what do you do? Problems are tough. No one enjoys going through difficult things. However, here are a list of things, to hopefully help keep on your mind, as you push through to get to the other side.

God is Good. (Matthew 19:7)
God’s got this. (Proverbs 3:5)
Jesus loves me. (Romans 5:8)
Not today Satan. (James 4:7)
The Lord is able. (II Corinthians 9:8)
At the end of the day, God’s in control. (James 4:15)
God will provide. (Hebrews 11:40)
God is going to sort it all out. (Romans 8:28)
God is faithful. (I Corinthians 1:9)
There’s nothing that’s going to happen today, that me & the Lord can’t handle. (I Peter 5: 7)

When things go wrong, it is so important to do our best, to keep things in perspective, It’s easy to let things get the best of us. Sometimes it’s easy to get down & think things are stuck & never going to get better. That’s just not true. Everything changes. So what do you do in the mean time?

Pray
Count your blessings.
Talk to someone, you trust, about what’s going on.
Put things into perspective, by remembering one of the above phrases.
Press on, don’t stop, & know things will get better.

Something that helps me, more than anything is to remember what I am thankful for. It keeps me humble & grounded. And remember, what the Lord promises us:

Psalms 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all. (NKJV)

If you focus on the Lord’s truths, you will always be on the right track. He will never leave us with it all to deal with.

Hebrews 13:5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (NKJV)

I also love some advice a dear friend gave me one time. I was going through a rough patch and confided in her. I asked her how she made it through some of the things that happened to her in life. She just laughed & said, “A lot of prayer & a lot of Paxil.” I love this advice. No, I’m not advocating taking drugs. I’m just saying sometimes we need help. And if we have to take a pill, to cope with life, for a time, well, so be it. There’s worse things we could do. Don’t forget, in the end, everything is going to be alright. If it’s not alright, it’s not the end.

Y’all. Whoever said, “Oh, I can’t wait for summer!”, back when it was cold, all I can say is here you are. Summer is yours to love & enjoy & make your dreams come true. I hope it is just delightful wherever you are. Because when I say, I will take winter any day over this hot, humid, mess, nobody is rolling their eyes now, are they? Y’all, it’s not even the dead of summer, yet. I kid you not, we have a heat advisory out until 8pm tonight. 8:00 at night. It’s so hot, the kids can’t go out and play. It’s so hot, you melt in a puddle, walking from your house to your car. It’s so hot, that we, as Southerners, remember at this time of the year, why we are working so hard to get to heaven. Hopefully, where there is air conditioning. Because we have heard tell the other place does not. And we ain’t in on such as that. Until next time, I will be going, because I should be washing clothes.

I am so proud of these young ladies for teaching at Vacation Bible School this year. They are some pretty good kids!

This sweet lady turned 90 years young yesterday. She has been my neighbor, the one I sit beside at church, & my friend, for a long time. As Miss Neenee would say, she’s our girl. We love her so much!

Fried green tomatoes just like my Mama Boyce used to make us. Don’t tell me we wasn’t raised right.

Since the summer has decided to pass by, without any warning whatsoever, I thought it would be perhaps a good time to mention school starts back at the end of this week.

As in THE.END.OF.THIS.WEEK.

I will just leave that right there. Do with it what you will.

However, with my disbelief of why the kids should be starting back to school so soon, Miss Neenee is quite excited. Per her usual, she has pinned me down to every last detail. Such as, when we are getting the last bit of her school supplies (and when I say the last bit, I mean, we have a back pack & lunch box & the 8th grade supply list is RIDONKULOUS), and when we will shopping for school clothes. She is so much of the planner. Just like her sister. They LOVE to plan and have everything figured out. I’m the more of flying by the seat of my pants type gal. A fountain of forethought & follow through I am not. Which thoroughly irritates the fire out of them. I don’t mean to. But deadlines & plans & being prepared, just not me. That gene skipped me somehow, because low & behold my beloved mama was a planner, as well.

We have been talking about the sermon on the mount at church. Well, Bro. Brad has been talking about it & we have been listening. But y’all. I have been studying & reading on it this week. Some really good stuff in there. I love to study on real words that Jesus said. I know & believe the entire Bible is God breathed. I just feel comforted to listen to Jesus’s teachings, always.

One of the things Jesus talks about, in this sermon, is worry. With everything that goes on these days, it’s so easy to go down the rabbit hole of worry & being fearful. We worry about our kids, money, family, friends, our jobs, our health, our family’s health, our country, our country’s leadership, etc. and so on. My grandmother was a worrier to a fault. She would worry. Then, when there wasn’t anything to worry about, well, she’d worry about that! She was a wonderful person. She just lived a life of unfortunate circumstances & things happened to her, that was out of her control. (Just like the rest of us.) When you are dealt a crummy hand, it’s easy to lose heart & begin to doubt & worry.

However, Jesus reassures us that we never have a need to worry.

Matthew 6: 25-34

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

²⁶Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

²⁷And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?^[g] ²⁸And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

³¹Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

³⁴“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (ESV)

Y’all, let’s not let worry consume us. Let’s not look back & think of all the things we missed out on because of worry. Things like joy, happiness, and restful nights sleep are at the top of the list for me. Everybody has problems & things they wish they didn’t have to deal with. However, we need to be prayerful & let the Lord work in our lives. He will if you let him, ya know?

Thank you for stopping by to visit with me today. July is but a fleeting memory. I’ve always heard time goes quicker, as you get older. And by George, I am a firm believer of this. I am also a firm believer that Mississippi, dead of heat summer is comparable to the torments of hell. Thus, my firm belief of doing my best to live a life that keeps me from those type situations. I hope you have a blessed rest of the week. As for me, I have to be going because I should be washing clothes.