Did you get your hopes up that God was going to do something for you, then it just got worse? You thought he was going to save your job, then the whole company shut down. You thought he was going to provide the money for the minor repairs on your car, then the whole engine blew up. You thought God had brought you the man of your dreams, then he turned out to be a nightmare. You thought this whole thing was looking up, then it all fell apart.

I heard something this morning that shook me. It woke me up. It met me in my little pity party of things only getting worse when I thought they were getting better. Here were the words I heard. God isn’t just doing his best here. He’s not showing up with limited resources and limited time, hoping he can stop the bleeding of your gaping wound. He’s not sitting back wondering if he can really change this, fix this, or help this. He’s not overwhelmed with your problem and showing up on the scene to offer the best he can do with no certainty of it being good enough.

God’s not just doing his best, HE IS THE BEST. He knows best. He does best. He holds the best. He’s aligning the best. The best timing, the best outcome, the best breakthrough, the best scenario. But here’s the thing about God … he’s not stressed about your timeline. Nor is he stressed about your picture of how you think it’s all supposed to work out. He holds the best and his best is what it will be. Even when it first gets worse. God’s best is still aligned for you.

Have you heard the story in scripture of Jairus? Jairus was the father of a little girl who was sick. She wasn’t just sick, she was dying. He was desperate for Jesus’ healing touch of his daughter, and he knew there wasn’t much time. So Jairus runs to Jesus in the crowd and falls at his feet, begging for him to come touch his daughter and heal her. Mark 5:24, “Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him.”

So Jesus is coming to Jairus’ house to heal his daughter. YES, God is doing something. I’m leading him to my house. But all of a sudden there’s an interruption, and for 10 verses Jesus has completely stopped in the crowd to heal a woman who had touched his robe. For 10 verses, Jesus’ forward progress toward healing Jairus’ daughter has stopped. And Jairus knew there was no time to waste, but Jesus seemed to be wasting time. He was healing someone else, while his daughter was running out of time.

Do you ever feel like God is busy answering everyone else’s prayers but yours? Like you’ve been praying and seeking, and while you’re still waiting, you see others getting fast answers and immediate results. That’s just dang frustrating isn’t it? But remember, God isn’t just doing his best here to handle all these countless requests and yours is somewhere lost in the pile. He’s not doing his best … HE IS BEST! He knows best. He holds best. He aligns best.

After 10 verses of Jesus stopping to heal someone else in the crowd while Jairus is left waiting for Jesus to keep coming with him, things get worse. Way worse. Mark 4, verse 35, While Jesus is still speaking to this woman in the crowd he stopped to heal, “Messengers arrived from the home of Jairus. They told him, “Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.”

Things got worse. Way worse. Jairus went from thinking Jesus was coming to heal his daughter, to a delay that resulted in his daughter’s death. Was Jesus just doing the best he could do, and he ran out of time? Did Jesus get distracted? Did Jesus have to make a choice to heal just one, and the woman in the crowd was his best choice?

God will do what only God can do. He will do it with what seems like not enough. He will do it when it seems most unlikely. He will do it through your obedience, then you will see you were always covered, always cared for, and always provided for.

In fact, hasn’t he already done this for you? Hasn’t he already done what only he could do in your life? Didn’t he come through when there seemed like not enough? Didn’t he do it when it was too far gone and way too late? And in it all, the only thing required of you was your obedience. So, don’t you already see you have always been covered. You have always been cared for. You have always been provided for. Always.

Now, what is worrying you today? What seems overwhelming? What threat has been stealing your peace? Girl, God has already proven to you personally he will get you through this.

But, we forget, don’t we? We forget all he has done before. We dismiss his divine work in the details of our lives and declare a little luck along the way and good karma on our side. Then we worry if maybe our luck has run out. Pshhhhhtttttt … that’s God’s mighty works in your life. That has God’s fingerprints all over it. Give him credit! God did that for you. And if he did that for you before, won’t he do this for you now?

The disciples were Jesus’ adventure partners for over 3 years. They went everywhere with Jesus. They saw all his miraculous works, and they were even given the power to do the same miraculous works in his name. One miracle they saw was the feeding of 5,000 people with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. They not only saw it, they were actively involved in it.

Mark 6: 31-34, Jesus says to his disciples, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat. So they left by boat for a quiet place, where they could be alone. But many people recognized them and saw them leaving, and people from many towns ran ahead along the shore and got there ahead of them. Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

Late in the afternoon his disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and villages and buy something to eat.”

But Jesus said, “You feed them.”

“With what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!”

“How much bread do you have?” he asked. “Go and find out.”

They came back and reported, “We have five loaves of bread and two fish.”

Then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of fifty or a hundred. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people. He also divided the fish for everyone to share. They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish. A total of 5,000 men and their families were fed.”

Imagine being actively involved in an undeniable miracle like this. Imagine seeing thousands of people eat from only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, then gathering 12 baskets full of leftovers after everyone had eaten all they could eat. Wouldn’t that change you forever?

Do you ever feel like you’re 11 months pregnant with a dream? Not 9 months, 11 months. Miserably overdue. The time for the birth of your dream has way since passed and now you’re wondering if this whole time you were just bloated. Like you made this whole thing up. You were never good enough. It was never really going to happen for you.

Who am I talking to today? Who is to the point of being OVER IT? What was once exciting to think about is now a swollen disappointment. It didn’t happen when you thought it would or how you thought it would, and now you’re left questioning if it will ever happen.

Galatians 6:9 says “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

In due season? Due season? Well that’s just annoying right there. I’m calling it like it is. What is due season anyway? Lord we’re feeling mighty over due here, can you tell us exactly when our due season is?

Only God knows when your thing will happen, but we know this for sure, it will never happen if you give up. You have one job here, KEEP DOING GOOD. Your job is not the result. Your job is the obedience.

Will you be obedient when it’s harder than you imagined?Will you be obedient when everyone else says it’s not going to happen?Will you be obedient when the time has come and gone?Will you be obedient when every thought in your head tells you it’s over, but something in your spirit says keep going?

When you boil it all down, this is what it’s about. All along, this is an opportunity for you to be obedient. And as you’re being obedient you’re becoming more and more like the person God created you to be. Understand, stepping into what you’ve been working toward is the bonus. The real prize is becoming who you were created to be in the process.

And finally, when you’re fully ready to step into your potential, lacking absolutely nothing, it will be your due season. Can I get an amen for due season? What you’ve been waiting for has finally arrived. You’ve been obedient through the waiting and the setbacks. And now you know what it’s time for ….

LABOR PAINS.

Oh hold on a hot second. Did no one tell you you were going to be working so hard all this time to do good, fighting the temptation to just give up, struggling to keep going, and then when it’s finally your time and God says “okay, you’re ready”, what you’ve been working so hard for isn’t going to just magically appear? It’s going to get harder now. You’re going to feel like you’re dying.

Where are my ladies at that have vivid memories of labor pains and childbirth? Who remembers that sheer hopeless feeling of “oh my gosh, the shoulders are never coming out! Somebody get this child out of me now!” After all that waiting, it gets worse before it gets better.

Giving birth to a dream and stepping into your destiny is no different my sister. This is hard stuff. And this is exactly why few people ever dare to live the the life that truly aligns with their God given potential. Remember, Psalm 37:4 says “The Lord will give you the desires of your heart.” This doesn’t mean God is a genie in a bottle, however this does mean the true desires of your heart were first given to you by God. Those deep seeded dreams within you of what your life could look like aren’t there by accident. Your creator created your dreams as well. God is the author of your dreams. They are a guide to the life he had in mind when he create you.

How good are you at making choices? How many clothes are laying piled on your closet floor because you struggle choosing what to wear? Is meal planning nearly impossible for you because a plan would require a decision and you’re just not sure if you would rather eat tacos or bury your face in a plate of pasta and making a commitment in advance seems overwhelming. You say you’re “keeping your options open” but in reality you’re just afraid to make a choice.

With God, anything is possible in your life. If you want to go back to school, you could do that. If you decided to start your own business, that’s totally possible. If you wanted to move to Montana and live in a teepee, okay, you could totally make that happen. If you wanted to open a beach-side coffee shop and wear flip flops for the rest of your days and drive a yellow Volkswagen bus, I’m betting with God, that’s possible for you as well.

So, I’m not only asking what do you want for dinner tonight, but I’m asking what do you want out of life? If anything is possible, what do you want? Remember, when you’re following God’s promptings, the desires of your hearts are a roadmap to the purposes for which you were created. God gives us desires and interests and specific giftings as seeds which grow to become divine purposes in partnership with him.

Well the truth is, this whole “anything is possible”, leaves the majority of us frozen in indecision. There are just too many choices, there are countless possibilities, we have an overwhelm in the options, and that’s where we often get lost.

But what nonsense it would be to stand in front of the buffet of life starving because you don’t know what to choose. If you’re at an all you can eat buffet and you walk out hungry, then girl, that’s on you. If you stand over the meat loaf and the chicken tenders too confused to make a choice so you leave your plate empty, you missed the whole point of the buffet.

Your life is much like a buffet, yet there’s a whole lot of us walking around hungry. We wander around with no purpose because we just aren’t sure. We’re filled with doubt, questioning every move we make, overthinking and analyzing, because the buffet of life is long and wide with an abundance of choices for us. Where do you start?

Well if you’re miserable and hungry, take a bite out of life already. Everything you need is right in front of you. With God, anything is possible. And that means choices, choices, choices. Yes, you’re going to have to make some choices. What goes on your plate, girlfriend?

Perhaps you’re left feeling insecure and unsure of your ability to make the right choice. Wouldn’t we rather God give us a heaping piled up plate of one specific direction for our life? Like God, what do you want me to do here? Lay it out Lord. If you’ll just show me exactly what I’m supposed to do today, tomorrow, and the next 5 years, that would be great. Let’s plan ahead. Lord, would you just take the guess work out of this purpose thing? Make it certain and make it fool proof.

Does that sound a little bit like the dialogue you’ve been having? Are you so afraid that you’re going to mess this thing up that you’ve backed away and stood on the sidelines waiting for God to do everything? Well where’s the purpose in that?

If God would have wanted robots, he would have created robots. But instead he created this entire universe and he put you in the middle of it with an invitation to create with him. The almighty creator says “here’s your life, let’s make beautiful things together.”

He once again brings you back to this buffet of life an...

The source of the majority of our struggles in this life is a mistaken identity. We’ve forgotten who we really are, and taken on the identity of someone we were never intended to be. We were never made to be lazy. Never made to be overwhelmed. Never made to be so worried. We were never made to be negative, distracted, unhealthy and unbalanced. And when we show up day after day to drag ourselves through life as a person we were never created to be, we lose our way. My sister, have you forgotten who you truly are? Have the voices of others drown out the voice of your creator? Is one of the voices your own?

The story of the Prodigal Son is one of my favorites. Every time I study it, I learn something new. It’s the story Jesus used to teach us the love of a Father for his child who forgot who they are, and their journey back to their true selves.

Luke 15: 11-24:

Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

Have you ever messed up? Have you ever gone down the wrong path, been irresponsible, focused on the wrong thing and did it the wrong way? Every single one of us have, and guess what, we will likely mess up again in our future. Probably today. But the Prodigal Son reminds us failure is not fatal. You have a loving heavenly father who is just waiting for you to realize who you really are, and start acting like it.

Who are you? Really, who are you? You are the blood bought, battle fought daughter of the King. You are a walking talking miracle, a one of a kind masterpiece of the master artist. You are prized, loved, chosen, redeemed, … that’s who you are … have you forgotten?

The son had gotten all wrapped up in what he had, and forgotten who he was. And once it was all gone, he hit rock bottom. I’ve been there. I was once focused on all I had and my goal every morning when I woke up was to make money to get more. I bought the big house, then I needed to fill the big house. I had the new car with a $1200 monthly payment, so I needed the new clothes to match the car. It was an endless cycle and it was never enough. And then it was all gone. Rock bottom was my new address. And it was here at rock bottom I remembered WHO I was.

Psalm 37:23 “The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.”

Does the Lord direct the steps of everyone? No, this scripture is very specific. He directs the steps of the godly. So what exactly does being godly look like? How can I be godly today and in exchange, receive God’s divine guidance and supernatural involvement in the details of my life?

A godly life is a life devoted to God. It’s rather easy to see a godly life in motion, you can point those people out, but isn’t it funny how no matter what you do, YOU never feel like a godly person. You know your flaws intimately. You live inside your brain that wanders and thinks ungodly thoughts. Have you disqualified yourself as godly in your head, and therefore disqualified yourself from believing you’re worthy of God’s direction and care of the details of your life?

All God is asking for is your devotion. That’s it. Just your devotion. Not your perfection. Not your understanding. Not even your agreement. Just your devotion. By definition, your devotion is your love, your loyalty and your excitement towards God. I believe you being here today and listening at this moment is a result of your devotion to God. That’s why we call this a devotional. This is the means by which you show your love, loyalty and excitement towards God. You are devoted to him. And it is your devotion that makes you godly, not your perfection. Not your holiness. Not your memorized scriptures, church attendance, or holy track record. Nope, none of that. Just your devotion. That’s your love, your loyalty, and your excitement towards God. You can give God that today!

Do devoted people screw up? BIG TIME! Do devoted people stumble? Abso-freaking-lutely. Do devoted people always find their way back? Yes, and here’s why – because the Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. And this should give you tremendous confidence!

Understand, this is a holy exchange. Your devotion makes you godly and in return, God is directing your steps. He is guiding you. You are receiving the guidance of the one who knows the end from the beginning, the one who makes all things new and works all things together for good.

Today is just another step in the journey of living the life you were created for. Another step towards become the person you can be. Now, I don’t know what your step may look like today. Your journey may look different than mine. But I know this, one day there will be a step that drastically changes everything. That step may be a long time in the making and you may not wake up knowing it’s the day, in fact you will likely feel like it’s just another Tuesday. But that step on that day is what all your other steps have been leading you to.

There’s a very special woman I met at one of our BIG Life Retreats who has struggled for the past 10 years. 10 years of shame, guilt, pain and questioning. 10 year of wandering and hurting. But one night at a retreat, a conversation unfolded that she didn’t plan or prepare for. A conversation of hidden hurt and shame she had been carrying for all those year. A light shinning in the darkness the enemy had kept her stuck in.

That conversation was a touch from a God who loved her wildly and had been relentlessly pursuing her. She didn’t wake up that morning thinking her whole world would change, but indeed God had guided her steps for an encounter with his power that would set her free and begin a deep healing within her.

Today, she’s a different person. She’s a beautiful image of restoration. God is restoring her. And it began with one touch,

Life isn’t fair … but God is faithful. You can spend all the days of your life trying to make sense of nonsense and it still won’t make sense. You could also spend all the days of your life searching for God’s faithfulness and you will find it in abundance. He never promised it would be fair. He never promised it would be easy. He promised it will be worth it.

God never said we wouldn’t experience loss, or failure, or death, or pain. He never said that things would always go our way, that we would always know where to go, or that our road would be perfectly smooth.

Anyone’s road a bumpy, pot hole filled, hot mess of exploding chaos? Anyone questioning why this can’t just calm down and be easier? Is there anyone who feels it’s not fair, not right, and you’re not sure what to do to make it right again? Sis, you’re not alone. Sometimes things just suck.

And it’s okay to be honest and say what a total disappointment this part of your journey is proving to be. It’s not what you wanted and it’s not what you like … but this isn’t where you’re staying. You’re just passing through here. God is leading you beyond this. You don’t have to stay stuck in the suck.

While God didn’t promise everything to always be easy and smooth sailing, he did promise that he would be forever standing by our side, forever carrying us through the hardest seasons, forever arms outstretched leaning into us. What he did say was that in every season of brokenness, He would bring hope, strength and truth. He did say his mercies would be new for you this morning.

And here they are. God has been faithful.

In Genesis we read of a woman who was kicked out of her home by the people she loved and trusted. Her name was Hagar. Perhaps you know her story as the servant of Sarah who was used for a child when Sarah and Abraham couldn’t have children of their own. Hagar has a baby with Abraham and Sarah. She is used to give them what they wanted when they wanted it. But then, God miraculously opens the geriatric womb of Sarah and gives them their miracle baby.

But guess what that meant for Hagar … that meant she and her son represented a problem. They were a constant reminder to Abraham and Sarah of their own screw up, so they kicked her out of the house. Hagar had to be saying, “well, this sucks!”

None of this was fair in any way. But once again, life isn’t always fair. I’ve seen good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people and I can’t give you the reasoning behind it. We can get caught up in the blame game and be victims for the rest of our days, or we can gain a new perspective.

Are you ready for a new perspective on your unfair situation today? Are you ready to be enlightened to see the answer right in front of you?

Let’s pick back up in the story. Hagar has been kicked out unfairly. She’s now wandering around in the desert, out in the middle of nowhere with nothing. The bread and water had ran out and her son was dying. She cried out to God and God does something miraculous. The Bible says, in Genesis 21:19, “Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water, and she went and gave the boy a drink.” Do you see that? God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.

Her eyes were opened.

I have to wonder if the answer to our problem isn’t right in front of us, but we’re not seeing it. Our perspective is wrong. Our focus is off. We need God to open our eyes so we can see.

The truth is, we’re incapable of finding the answers to our problems on our own. Like Hagar,

Today’s devotional is a special, unplugged “girl chat” reviewing what God has shown us this week and pause to ask, “what is God saying to you?” Through the lessons of David with the lions and bears, and Ruth with her hardship and struggle, we see God’s providence working in the natural to bring about his supernatural will. And can’t we trust God is doing the same for us? Yes, he is in the details, and he has a bigger, better plan unfolding. Hear what he is saying to you today.

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Here’s the good news … you will never know how low you could have gone without God, because he swooped in and rescued you. You will never know how bad it could have gotten without him, because you have never been without him. You will never know the person you would have been without God, because he never gave up on you.

And he never will. Ever. He will never give up. He will never leave. And honey, he will never stop rescuing you. Whatever it is you’re facing, you will NOT go through this without God. He will be by your side, he will guide your steps, and he will strengthen you through it all. On the other side of this, you will look back and see, you’re better for it.

Yes, you’re better for the fire, because you came out refined. You’re better for the storm, because you know only Jesus could have walked on that water to you. You’re better for the trouble because it trained you for the battle. Girl, you are so much better for it.

David was the little shepherd boy who showed up on the scene of a battle no one wanted to fight. The Philistine giant, Goliath, had taunted the Israelite army for 40 days. And for 40 days, thousands of trained soldiers with their weapons stood in fear and refused to fight Goliath. David is only on the battlegrounds to deliver lunch to his brothers, he wasn’t a soldier. And he had no weapons. But little David is who God would choose to defeat the giant and give his people victory.

But, here’s what we often miss in this story. David showed up better. Better for all he had gone through. What had he gone through? Training!

1 Samuel 17: 34-37, David says, “I have been keeping my Father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. I have killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

Nothing David had gone through in the fields would be wasted. Every encounter with a lion or a bear had made him better. Better for battle against the enemy on the battlegrounds. Trained to trust in the power of God to strengthen him and rescue him. Now, he shows up with confidence in his God and who God had made him to be. And you bet there would be victory here! Impossible, unbelievable, undeniable victory! That giant was going down! He was going down because David showed up better.

Could this be why you have gone through what you have gone through? Maybe you weren’t facing a lion, but you had one heck of an encounter with the attacks of our enemy who, scripture says, “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) You weren’t facing a bear, but you had to bare a burden you didn’t think you were strong enough to carry. But God gave you supernatural strength to get through that, didn’t he? You’ve struggled, and you’ve overcome. You’ve failed, and you’ve gotten back up. You’ve wandered and gotten lost, and you’ve been found.

And through it all, God used it as training. Training that made you better.

Now, just like David, you show up having won a few battles and experienced God’s faithfulness to always get you through. You show up better for it. Better because of the hardship. Better because of the struggle. Better because of everything that seemingly went wrong, fell apart, and broke your heart.

Here it is today … we reveal the secret to a good attitude. Listen up, if you’re raising little human beings, this could be the best parenting advice you ever receive. Advice that also applies directly to your own life as well.

Toil or spoil.

Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 “I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.”

Hmmmm, this is the gift of God – to toil. Have you been toiling? What is toil anyway? The definition of toil is to work extremely hard. That is God’s gift. Here have something to eat, have something to drink and work your butt off, and be happy while you do it.

I have raised 3 children. I learned a lot in raising teenagers. One thing I noticed is the the correlation between their attitude and how good they feel about themselves. If we ever had a problem with our kids, deep down they weren’t feeling good about themselves. If we wanted good attitudes in our home, we had to figure out how to help them feel good about themselves.

Here was the secret … work … hard work! If there’s no toiling, their attitude will spoil.

At one point we lived on a 200 area ranch in a tiny rural town in Arkansas. I’m talking real tiny town where the only job options are Dollar General, McDonalds and WalMart – none of which ever seemed to hire teens. I had this fabulous 16 year old son who desperately struggled with his attitude. And remember, what’s at the core of a bad attitude … he didn’t feel good about himself. So, we told him to find odd jobs and get busy working. He would pick rocks for an entire day and come home with $70, or clean an old man’s shed with 40 years of build up. His most memorable odd job was on a chicken farm. One chicken house held 30,000 chickens and his job was to sort through all the chickens and find the dead ones and haul them out in buckets.

Classy? Not so much. But he came home feeling good about himself. And because he started feeling good about the work he had done, his attitude was automatically better. Today that boy is the hardest working young man I know. Yesterday he called me at the end of a 24 hour shift, his car broke down on the road and he was having it towed, and he still had a good attitude. Guess why? Because he feels good about himself! God’s gift to my boy was toil!

And aren’t we the same? If we don’t toil, our attitudes spoil We don’t do well when we’re doing nothing. We may complain about our “toil” but have we forgotten it is the very thing that makes us feel better about ourselves too? It is God’s gift to us – it’s a gift because God knows he created us to thrive most when we are working towards something. You weren’t created to sit on your couch. Sitting on your couch will never make you feel good inside. You know why? Because you’ve lost your toil and toil is God’s gift to his creation. You were made to be working towards something in life. And if you’re not, you don’t feel good. And when you don’t feel good about you, your attitude super sucks.

I’m sure you’re working towards something, hopefully you are. You’re working towards paying off some debt. You’re working towards getting your degree or advancing in your job. You’re working towards losing weight or being healthier. You’re working towards improving relationships, or selling your house, or buying a better car, or raising decent human beings. Don’t despise the work that you’re doing. Sure it can go unnoticed and without thanks, but this is God’s gift to you. Do your work today the best you can, with a smile.