Jesus is my Airbag

Everywhere I turn lately I'm hearing about friends with job losses, marriage struggles, grief, depression... the list goes on and on. Life is full of unforeseen circumstances, isn't it?

Lamentations 3: 22-24 "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'the Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for Him.'"

A few years back I lost a friend due to some very tragic circumstances, and the feeling reminded me of being in a car accident. We were just going along in life, cruising at a comfortable speed. She was climbing in her nursing career, and I had just given birth to my first child. Life was hard, but it was good. Then the day we got the call that she was killed was like an oncoming car smashing head-on into my nice cruise. I felt like if I had seen it coming, I could have braced my hands on the wheel, closed my eyes, slowed down, or taken an entirely different path to avoid the hurt. Nope. When unexpected things happen, the only place we have to fall is on Jesus. He's the airbag of our life. No matter how big the crash, He reaches out to us and holds us, protects us, as we fall. I can't imagine how I could drive through life without knowing He's there to protect me. It doesn't mean that crashes don't hurt us, and it doesn't mean that we will avoid them. It DOES mean that we will always have a safe place to fall and the knowledge that we will not be consumed when a cruise comes to a halt.

We're praying for you, moms. We pray that you invite the Lord into your life daily and that He will protect you in your journeys.

Mommy Reboot

Sometimes moms just need a break. I stepped back from routine life this weekend and went out of town with my family. It was mostly to visit some friends but also to get a mommy reboot. Since the family came along, I can't say it was a total break, but I had the chance to get away from cooking and cleaning, emails and phone calls, texts and facebook. I needed to turn myself off for a while and get back to the basics. We took walks, went to parks, and talked face to face. When we left on Friday, I was in sad condition. I felt like nothing was ever going to get done, and I was overwhelmed. Now that we're back and rebooted, I realized that cutting myself off for a while is just what I needed to get going again.

Perhaps you are feeling frazzled and overwhelmed like I was last week. Even if you can't go away, what can you give up for a day or a few days to allow you the chance to reboot?