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Lamentations 3: 22-23

I can't tell you how glad I was to read this verse today.  I am the kind of person that lives my life thankful for new mercies EACH day.  Not because I live to mess things up, but because we are human.  This means that by nature, we stand to learn something about ourselves...daily.  In kneeling before the Lord each night in prayer (or laying in bed...whatever you do)we have the opportunity to reflect on our day.  How did we act?  How did we speak to others?  Did we reflect Christ and show his love as much as we could?  And finally, what could we have done better?  Reflection is a time to look back and see what we did in our day that helped make someone else's day better.  I know for me personally, I can look back almost daily and see what I like to call "construction zones".  The flashing lights and orange barrels indicate areas in my life that need work.  But...in reading my devotional this morning (New Year's Resolution), I saw how Jeremiah looked to God (By Choice) during times of trouble.  He decided to turn to God after blaming him for his troubles.  In doing so, he realized that "his storm didn't cease, but his discouragement did".

I can look back on the times in my day when my language was less than flattering or when my head practically spun off my body yelling at my children.  We all have moments in our days when we lose control. The good news...

Because we are loved, we can say...tomorrow is a new day and by choice...I'm going to work on making that better.

The storm...(stress, job, kids, marriage, finances, illness, etc.) isn't going to cease (immediately), but the discouragement will-

when we turn to God.

Have a blessed day!
Referee of 3