Monday, April 11, 2016

What to do when your lip is in your lap

Written by Doris Lakey 

There comes such a day in each of our lives when everything
gets difficult and you feel like you are in so deep a hole you
can’t see daylight. Your world shrinks down to no further than
arm’s length around you.

My grandmother used to describe those desperately lonely or
troubled times as having her lip in her lap or her nose on her
naval. Those mental images were her way of using humor to
lessen her depression until she could get her Christian faith
jump-started and get back on track.

That shrunken world view of all possible bad outcomes sometimes
left her temporarily too paralyzed to see beyond her problems to
remember the myriad of blessings available to her, even on her
worst day. Eventually she would begin to count her blessings,
look up to remember she was not alone and she could again
stand strong.

Okay, we may not have health, a houseful of loved ones and
friends or an expensive car or important job by this world’s
standards, but start with basics: fresh air, sunshine, rainbows
behind each raincloud, a Bible full of promises from our Holy,
living God who loves us even when we whine about how cruel
this world is to us. Remember who we’re talking to about our
concerns—He is the one wearing that crown of thorns! He’s
been there, done that and yet he loves us, promises to go with
us through the darkest days all the way to “happily ever after”.


And that’s no fairy tale.

No comments:

Post a Comment