Am I Going to Be OK? I’ve got nothing going for me…

Another hectic day full of stress is over. I lay my exhausted head on the pillow and instantly, like a programmed back up system, I begin to go over the insane events that happened just before bedtime. The screen of my mind fills up with horrible scenes. The scenario plays back as if on repeat: I yell. Those around me duck for cover. I feel ashamed. I feel like a failure. I feel like I’ve got nothing going for me. I feel like I’m the worst everything: the worst friend, the worst co-worker, the worst teacher, the worst aunt, the worst niece, the worst daughter-in-law, the worst cook, and most of all, the worst Mother, the worst Wife and the absolutely the worst Daughter of the Most High…

Sigh…

Then, I remember Holley Gerth wrote something about this in her book You’re going to be Okay:

“Stress and bad days seem to empty our hearts and our hands. We think, “I’ve got nothing… or at least very little.” But the reality is, you still have a lot going for you…When life presses in on us, we can lose sight…sometimes it helps to ask someone you trust, ‘What do I have going for me?’ You might be surprised by the answer. It could be your great sense of humor. The way you faithfully pray. Even that your new hairstyle looks fabulous on you. Whatever the answer, big or small, the real point is to begin to shift your perspective.” (P. 45)

Hmmm…

There is so much good stuff packed in this little paragraph, I don’t even know where to begin…

The thing is that our circumstances can wreak havoc in our souls, hearts and minds. In my case, when I’m having a particularly stressful day or I’m going through a challenging situation, I lose it. My temper becomes so short that Daisy Duke’s short-shorts look like Capri-pants. I lose it. I lose it. (You know how in the Bible they repeat things for emphasis, yeah, that’s what I’m doing here). Then, the result of my emotional surge is inevitably always a combination of remorse, shame and guilt…a devastating combination.

I have a hard time ever thinking I have anything going for me, let alone on those moments of hysteria. During the aftermath of my losing it, I feel like there is nothing good in me at all. That is a trap from the enemy, though. In my case, that is one of the biggest lies he uses to entrap me into a pit of darkness.

The truth is that, even though: As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;” (Romans 3: 10) Like the author says, we do have a lot going for us! And I mean, A LOT! Regardless of the fact that nobody can claim that he/she is righteous and good on his or her own, we do have the righteousness of God in us:

This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. Romans 3: 22

Therefore, the lie of the enemy is unmasked, and his deceit is revealed once we put it to the test of the Word.

The thing is that we are very quick to forget. That is why the advice the author gives in this section is so valuable: ask someone you trust to remind you of what you’ve got going for you! We all need a support group. We all need people around us who can help us stay on track. We are not designed to be alone. We were created to be in community. Look at the Trinity! Our God, Himself is in a divine fellowship within Himself. It is not a surprise, then, that He created us to live in fellowship. He knows that is the most effective way of existing.

Church can be the most important source of friends we could ever have! In my case, God has given me the blessing of placing me in a church where I have found other sisters in Christ whom I can reach out to always, but especially during my times of trial and fire…and you know what the miracle is? That they actually walk with me through those trials and fires. That is the beauty of Christian sisterhood.



We should seek those relationships, and if you are lacking them, I believe, the place to start finding them is at a Bible preaching place of worship, where it is evident that imperfect people are followers of a Perfect God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.