There’s Never Enough Tomorrow’s

Have you ever felt like the moment that your prayers were answered it seemed like your blessing was being taken away from you?

I have felt like this a few times in my life, and actually pretty recently, but I’ll get into that in a minute. It can be really hard to be grateful for your blessing when it feels as though it is being ripped from your grasp before you are ready to be done with it.

Have you ever felt like the moment that your prayers were answered it seemed like your blessing was being taken away from you?Click To Tweet

I have noticed this trend in many of the lives around me. It seems as though life can just be so stinkin’ unfair sometimes. You pray, and you pray, and you get the miracle, you get the blessing, the job, the baby, the house, the car, the man or woman of your dreams, and suddenly… it’s gone. And it never feels like you had enough time.

JUST WHEN WE WERE STARTING TO ENJOY OUR BLESSING, IT’S BEING TAKEN AWAY

Just when we were starting to enjoy our blessing, it’s being taken away.Click To Tweet

We’ll start with my example. I have been praying for only the Lord knows how long, probably over a year, for my husband and I to find a couple that we just click with. A girl that I could gab about shoes and shopping with, and a guy that he can nerd out over technology and motor vehicles with. No matter what, it always seemed like we kept running into couples who just didn’t mesh the way we wanted them to. And not that they were bad couples, we are actually friends with most of them still. It’s just usually kinda one sided. Either the girls are my friends, or the guys are his friends, or the couples already have their “go-to couple” for hanging out and doing things with.

Well finally, we found a couple that we bonded with almost instantly. It was as if we became best friends overnight. I have never seen my husband talk until wee hours of the morning with anyone other than myself and it’s like every time we spend time with them, time just slips away from us. This was the type of bond I had been praying for. The bond I was so desperately in search of. We’ve only known this couple about a year and we have recently started getting close with them (This is primarily due to the painfully introvertedness of three out of four of us, myself included…). But nonetheless, the moment we started to feel like our prayers had been answered, our new friends told us they are moving to the West Coast by the end of the Summer this year. Literally on the other side of the country. Can you imagine how much this sucked to find out? It’s like just when we were starting to enjoy our blessing, it’s being taken away.

I wrestled with this until suddenly this morning it was as if God was saying to me… nothing in life is permanent. Nothing that I give you, aside from my love and grace, is forever. Why are you so bent out of shape over “losing a friendship” instead of enjoying your time you still have together? WOAH. Okay God… way to put my foot in my mouth with that one.

This obviously got me thinking. How obtuse of me to even think this is a major issue. And how single-minded of me to see this as a loss rather than a win. My husband and I get to spend the next 7 months doing life with these amazing people, and after that we’ll have a reason to visit California! Their moving is not the “beginning of the end” it’s just the beginning of the next chapter and God wants us to live for the now, focus on what He is doing in our lives NOW and how He is using this relationship to grow us for the bigger tasks we all have ahead of us.

SHE DIDN’T GET ENOUGH TOMORROW’S, SHE DIDN’T GET THE WHAT IFS, AND SHE DIDN’T GET THE ONE DAYS

When I realized how ridiculous I was being, it helped me to recognize that people experience this same type of feeling, times like a thousand, all the time.

What about the woman who lost her husband last year? They’d spent years growing old together. Raising a family, building a church, strengthening relationships, and just loving each other in the way that the Lord designed it. Suddenly, he got cancer and it took his life. All the tomorrows, all the what ifs, all the could have beens that they’d been dreaming about gone before she was ready.

Then there is the student that lost her dad this year. Another loss to the dreadful disease of cancer. She feels robbed of her one days, her tomorrows, her dreams with her dad. She will never have to him hold her when that boy breaks her heart, or to walk her down the aisle on her wedding day. Her blessings with her dad ended well before she was ready.

And there’s the story of the woman who gave birth and lost two babies in one year. She and her husband had prayed for their second child and were rejoicing in sharing the good news. Shortly after this, she miscarried and gave birth to him still born. Their miracle was gone before she was ready. When they realized soon after that they were pregnant with twins they felt extremely blessed. They were miracle twins. She carried these rainbow babies to full term and gave birth to a beautiful baby boy and girl. Just days after their birth, the little girl who’d fought the good fight, being born with a heart defect, was taken away from her before she was ready to say goodbye. She didn’t get enough tomorrows, she didn’t get the what ifs, and she didn’t get the one days.

BE THANKFUL IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES

After sharing these stories, my story seems rather small. And God has used my story to humble me into recognizing the tragedies of living in this world. The Lord blesses us all the time. We just need to recognize our blessings and be grateful. Our blessings were never meant to be permanent. If they were, we’d already be in Heaven.

Being grateful when it feels like we’re losing something is difficult. But it’s necessary. Gratitude for the blessings that we’ve been given, for the time that we’ve been given, is not only glorifying to God but it helps to ease the pain of the loss and even look at loss from a new perspective. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 tells us to “be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus” NLT. When we are always thankful, we are never losing, but instead we are always winning. So choosing to be grateful makes you a winner. Let’s choose to be that.

Much Love,

Caylee

When we are always thankful, we are never losing, but instead we are always winningClick To Tweet