This is the stuff

This is the stuff---it is the title of a Francesa Battistelli song. It so sums up many of my daily distractions and frustrations. I have a bad habit of letting these things swallow up my brain and leave me in a self-centered, selfish, anxious, non-joyful state-of-mind. By no means am I saying that my daily battles surpass my encounters with grief.Yet, I let the daily skirmishes wear me down much like the irritating sore of a splinter or a tiny rock in my shoe. I prep for the bigger battles with grief by donning my full armor. Yet the daily irritations sneak in under the radar, between the tiny cracks. Every day is new with its own battles big or little for which I must prepare. This is the stuff that I have to handle one day at a time.


Currently listening to:
Francesa Battistelli
lil M singing to himself

Lunch:
fresh greens from the market
sandwiches
fruit

Currently reading:
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Today grateful for:
good health
weekends
sunshine
working automobiles
God’s provision
God's presence

addendum (January 23, 2011)
Today's reading in My Utmost For His Highest speaks to this very thing. It's amazing how God does that! ;)

The most important rule for us is to concentrate on keeping our lives open to God. Let everything else including work, clothes, and food be set aside. The busyness of things obscures our concentration on God. We must maintain a position of beholding Him, keeping our lives completely spiritual through and through. Let other things come and go as they will; let other people criticize us as they will; but never allow anything to obscure the life that “is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Never let a hurried lifestyle disturb the relationship of abiding in Him. This is an easy thing to allow, but we must guard against it. The most difficult lesson of the Christian life is learning how to continue “beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord . . . .”

link to the entire devotion --> http://utmost.org/transformed-by-beholding/