Have you ever had one of those days that drag on, seeming never to end? One of thsoe days where the clock is just not making its rounds fast enough? You know how the Bible says that man and God see time differently? To God one day is as a thousand years. I am having this kind of week. I feel like it is next Thursday, but it’s only this Wednesday. I’ve been having to deal with some challenges this week, most of which take the form of people. And instead of just rising above it all I have felt frustrated, tired and even bored.

I figure that I will stay frustrated until I really think through my attitude and change my thoughts to think the rightly about redeeming my time and responding in a godly way to things that bog me down. I have some things I’m looking forward to tonight and this weekend. But looking forward to later doesn’t always help with the here and now, so I looked up some verses that really helped me, maybe you will even find them encouraging…

Psalm 118:24 “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Simply put, today is a gift. I cannot change yesterday and I don’t even know if I have tomorrow, all I have is today. I can choose to live it for the Lord, seeking and following Him, or wasting it. I don’t need to dread today, or worry about what it may hold; I need to just be glad in it because God is in it. It is His day and He is giving it to me, I need to ask myself what am I going to do with it?

Ephesians 5:15-16 “Be very careful, then, how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” Paul gives me three things to consider here: 1) “Be careful” tells me that it’s very easy to waste days and not even think twice about it. I need to start considering my time and what I do with it. 2) There is an “unwise” and “wise” way I can spend today. The wise way: “making the most of every opportunity” and the unwise way: wasting opportunities by feeling sorry for myself or making excuses for my bad attitude, complaining. 3) “The days are evil.” There are lots of sins that I can get caught up in, many things that can lead me astray today. Complaining about what I don’t like about it and being negative about my cicumstances is doing more to tear down my appreciation for the gift of life and probably bring down the people listening to me.

Instead, I can choose to resolve the problems I am coming across, encourage others and serve the Lord with my whole heart. If I focus on these things maybe I won’t be so focused on the clock. I have 86,400 seconds–sounds like alot to me today!–but I can redeem every one of them from frustraton and waste if I choose to.

Last night I spent my evening reading more of 1 Peter and some of Beth Moore’s Believing God. Bobby and I went to Borders. I looked for a book called Blowing My Cover: My life as a CIA agent. I couldn’t find it, but I did buy the new Phantom of the Opera soundtrack. I saw the movie with the girls last month. We had conflicting views on the story, some thinking it to be dramatic and romantic, some said “shocking” and some wondering why Christine says the Phantom is “inside my mind” (that was me!). The story aside, we can all agree that the music is beautiful.

I also made peanut butter smoothies. Delicious! If you want to try them, it is a very simple recipe I made up: Put 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream in a blender with about 1/4 cup of milk or less, depending on the thickness you prefer. Blend until smooth and then add two big spoonfuls of creamy peanut butter and 1/4 tablespoon of vanilla, blend about one minute and enjoy!

Well, that is enough blog rambling, maybe my day isn’t going so badly after all…