What To Do When You Feel Stuck

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April 13, 2021

Do you ever wake up in the morning and feel like you’re living the same day as yesterday? I feel that. I feel like every day can feel the same, sometimes even mundane. As a mother of a young one, I wake up, hopefully, earlier than everyone to get a minute to enjoy some silence with the Lord, then get the little one up, breakfast, playtime, lunch, nap, more playtime, dinner, bath, bed. It’s so routine even my child knows what’s next. Or maybe you wake up, make coffee, drive to work on autopilot, the list can go on and on.

Even in this Lord? For such a time AS this.

Recently, I’ve felt stuck. I have wondered if this is really all I’m supposed to be doing. Surely not, I tell myself. Surely not. Surely, my time should be spent on someone else, something else, somewhere else?

I started a new habit of writing down what I’m thankful for in my journal. I bring it with me everywhere as a small reminder to know that I can find something to be grateful for in every detail or moment. After reading “One Thousand Gifts,” a book focused on thankfulness, that’s exactly what I felt challenged to do. Write it all down. Even the small things our eyes tend to overlook, such as:

1. Hands being warmed by a coffee mug

2. Fresh snow coating cars

3. Giggles from my little guy

These little moments of gratitude to Jesus have allowed me to take a minute and truly praise Him for each moment I get. I’ve found that you can’t be genuinely thankful and fearful at the same time or thankful and angry at the same time either. You have to pick one. And in my anger, frustration, and even my tears, when I write down what I’m thankful for, I can’t stop putting more words to paper…

55. Friends who bring flowers to a play date

56. Friends sending a text saying they are praying for you

57. The sun peeking through the clouds

I keep writing, and I keep praising Jesus for what he has given me. It’s incredible how that happens. Romans 8:6 reminds us that when we allow the Spirit to control our thoughts and minds, we can be at peace. We can choose thanksgiving and praise by choosing to set our minds on the Spirit rather than this world.

“But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.”
-Romans 8:6

For such a time as this — I’ve learned there is a way to praise Jesus in the mundane, hurting, the long days, and the even longer days. When we fix our hearts on Him and His Word, we don’t have to choose anger. We don’t even have to choose the mundane. We have the choice DAILY, minute by minute, and even second by second, to sing a new song of thanksgiving to Him.

When I think about these things, I’m so thankful. I can’t help but share it with those I love. That’s what praise does. You feel like you have to share it! What good does keeping it to yourself do? I have access to freedom and salvation; why would I choose to keep it to myself? I’ve got to share the power of thanksgiving and praise.

For such a time as this, praise His name. Enter His courts with thanksgiving and praise. In the mundane — changing another diaper, , singing the clean-up song for the 10th time, driving to work, and cooking another crockpot meal — praise His name, even in such a time as this.

“Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord! Praise the Lord!”
-Psalms 150:6