Good Morning Gorgeous,

It’s a brand new day. A fresh start. Thank goodness we get a new one each day. What happens when the struggles from yesterday are right there waiting for you as soon as you open your eyes?

What do you do when you end a hard day, and as soon as you open your eyes, it all comes flooding back.

What if the day doesn’t FEEL new?

It may not feel new, but the proof is in the sunrise.

It may still feel dark and gloomy in your spirit, but the daylight speaks a different truth.

Our feelings don’t always align to truth and our weapon when our feelings are not aligning to what is true is to cling to truth, speak truth, and ask God to align our thoughts and feelings to truth.

Its simple, but NOT easy. To make a list of truths such as I am statements grounded in scripture and then speak them aloud and often seems so simple. But if it’s so simple, why don’t we do it? If it’s simple why do we still sit and struggle with feelings that we know are not true when we have a way to pull ourselves out of the pit when we fall in? Why?

Because it is haaaard to pause when our feelings and thoughts are spiraling and instead stop and speak truth. It’s not always easy to recognize what lies we are believing that are causing the struggle.

But I promise it is worth the fight to learn how and to practice using this weapon again and again. And just like strength training with weights, your faith and truth muscles will grow as you speak truth even in the darkness.

Here’s what it looks like in real life my friends…

Yesterday started off glorious for me. It was one of those awesome close to Jesus mornings, followed by a prayer group meeting at work, an amazing lesson with a group of students that I meet with twice a week, and the day was just good and it felt good.

Then, as the day wore on, it got busier and busier. I skipped lunch..I worked right through it. Emails were coming in that needed my attention. I had an afterschool club meeting. After I dismissed those kiddos, I needed to get to a chiropractor appointment, but still had some pressing items on my desk.. In the midst of that I accidentally sent my husband to pick up our son at his middle school an hour early, because I forgot it was a robotics day…. and there ya have it…. nothing major…no catastrophe, but real life happened. And I left work feeling like a failure. I felt like nothing was being done well. I felt self doubt… I was wondering if I was making a difference. All of those feelings that come when we let our guard down. I can recognize my feelings now as just that…..feelings… NOT truths. But, oh my it still hurts.

I reached out to a close friend who had just blogged about I ams that morning! Here was my message:

I am leaving work feeling so deflated. Not enough hours in the day. I don’t feel like I’m doing anything well. I don’t think it’s true, but hard to shake the feelings.

And her response was so precious to me..

She shared that she was feeling the exact same way. She shared some of her doubts and worries and struggles. And then she began to speak TRUTH. She said…

We are making a difference every day.

We are changing lives even if we can’t see it.

We need to tell ourselves truth to fight the lies. Then she encouraged me further and said, “You know the truth. You know what you do matters. You know how hard you work.” And then she spoke more I ams:

What we do is important.

We do it well to the best of our ability.

We do so much for our students.

**Thank goodness for a good friend who also is practicing and growing in speaking truth despite how she feels! Here is a link her to blog post from yesterday! https://momstronglifedotcom.wordpress.com/2019/11/20/i-am/

I share all that because that is exactly what being grounded in truth looks like and sounds like. The feelings will still come, but if we know the truth and we speak it often, then when we have a rough afternoon or a hard day or a hard week or a hard year, we can cling to the truth in the dark. We can speak what is true despite what we feel..

So I wish I could say it’s like magic and suddenly I felt great, but I am committed to remaining authentic and real with you all.. I didn’t feel better last night and as I woke up this morning, the same feelings hit me all over again before I even put my feet to the floor. So yes the day is new and fresh and precious, and yet I still feel stuck in yesterday’s junk.

However there is hope and beauty in that even though the day doesn’t FEEL new, it STILL is. The truth is this is a brand new start. A new day to continue my I am statements. A new day to enter the throne room of the Lord and tell Him that the day feels heavy and I need Him to carry my burdens. A new day to turn my back and let Him take my heavy backpack off and put it on His shoulders.

Today is NEW and I am going to pray, praise, and speak the truth of God’s Word over my life on the days when I feel it AND on the days that I don’t feel it. My feelings are not a good indicator of the truth, but the Lord declares it’s a new day with the rising sun. The Lord declares me equipped and empowered.. The Lord says that I am strong and courageous and that He will walk with me every where I go today. So here’s to a brand new day my gorgeous friends! Let’s rejoice and be glad in it!

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for precious friends speaking truth into me. Thank You for your Words that we can cling to in the storm. Thank You for being a personal savior, and our Father. Thank You for clarity in the fog.

In Jesus’s name, Amen.