When the week has been hard

A yellow-white sun scrapes the horizon as a slip out back on a Saturday morning. It’s the first day in two weeks that we’ve had a slow morning, sleeping until we wake. We sit together and read, breathing deep as we reflect on the whirlwind of the past few months.

Little-bit is on her knees on the concrete patio pushing Hotwheels across bumpy surface. The big kids are still sleeping, recovering from a week of new everything. I didn’t realize how hard this week would be.

I read the Word. I find myself in Ezekiel. It has been a difficult book for me. Unlike the tender-hearted Jeremiah, Ezekiel is more harsh in his foretelling of the impending doom waiting for God’s people. In Jeremiah, God’s compassion for the people is evident. In Ezekiel, God’s pleading for his people has stopped. Judgement will come. But after judgement and repentance, there will be deliverance.

To mute the harshness of Ezekiel, I turn to the Psalms. I remember a particular one from earlier in the week. My commute is over an hour now and I’m working on ways to use the time. My iPhone and YouVersion Bible app allow me to listen to the Bible as I drive. The introduction to Psalm 56, perked my ears. “A Mikhtam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.”

I thought of the boy-warrior who killed the giant, was anointed the future king and then fled from the current king. While running for his life, he was captured by the enemy Philistines. For a time, He fought for the enemy army.

During this time that he wrote:

You have taken account of my wanderings;
Put my tears in Your bottle.
Are they not in Your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call;
This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise,
In the LORD, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid.
What can man do to me? Your vows are binding upon me, O God;
I will render thank offerings to You. For You have delivered my soul from death,
Indeed my feet from stumbling,
So that I may walk before God
In the light of the living. (Psalm 56:8-13 NASB)

I close my Bible and open my prayer journal and start with my thanks. In this familiar yet recently neglected routine, I realize how ungrateful I have been this week — so focused on challenges and to-dos I didn’t see the gifts. I write, because these words are a testimony of who He is and what He has done. He has provided this week, this day, this very hour.

Grateful today for:

• Early morning nature song
• Friends who have listened and loved, even what I wasn’t at my best
• A husband who asks, “What can I do for you today?” and then does it.
• A new life that hints at quieter days to come
• My first published post at Prodigal
• Simple gifts
• Flyswatters
• Golden curls gone crazy
• The Sunday morning reminder that “I am a flower quickly fading…”

Linking today with Ann.