What's Next?

Lately, I have been struggling with finding my footing. Life just seems hard! Looks like I am in a season of trials and I do not like it one bit! I guess that's what life is all about...recognizing the ups and downs and then learning from them.

One truly hard thing about a down season is not rushing them. Oh, how we would love to rush right past them. Who in their right mind would want to knowingly sit around in a hard time contemplating, "what can I learn from this?"

However, that is precisely the attitude we need to have during the difficult and most challenging times in our lives. We learn, not so much to prevent hard times from coming upon us, but how to stand strong and faithful while we are experiencing them. We learn how to survive. We build confidence. We build understanding. We learn not to be ruled by fear, anxiety, doubt, anger and frustration. We learn how to look at situations differently and share those parts of our journey with others so that they too can learn and grow.

Rushing past the hard times keeps us blind to our strength and resilience! Hard times are not fun and they are definitely not easy. In the last month my household has had very expensive issues and repairs from the car to the hot water heater to the ac unit to finding water leaks. Each incident had me asking, "am I being punked!" Seemed like everyday I went to work and returned home to something else broken or damaged.

I most definitely was not trying to look for a lesson to learn. I was looking for a way out of this mess. But then one day while I was in the midst of broken down tears, I was reminded that I was built strong. I could have my moment but after that I needed to pray, get some clarity and simply do the next thing.

We are still in the midst of repairing the leaks and the ac unit. They are costly and the budget is getting tight, however, I keep telling myself, "Ro, just do the next thing." Listening, learning, and doing the next thing is how I am going to get through this.

When you find yourself in a difficult situation or hard time, I encourage you to pray, get some clarity, and simply do the next thing. Even if that next thing is washing the dishes, folding clothes, or putting gas in the car. Just do the next thing and you will get through it.