Remember, you promised...

On this particular day, when I was driving to go work out at the gym and feeling a little bummed out about that fact, a terrible cold front was coming in, and the sky was a dark gray.  The wind was blowing like no other, and the temperature dropped fifteen degrees in half an hour.  A dusky fog was beginning to settle, and the entire town seemed restless and anxious as the upcoming arctic blast headed our way. 

At a certain stop sign, I glanced around, still feeling kinda down in the dumps, when I saw an old, rusty sign standing several houses down from where my car was. In clear letters, it read, "Today is going to be a good day."

I can't believe that I have passed this sign every day on the way back from school, and I have never noticed it before.  I squinted to read the sign, and when I saw what it said, my thoughts just brightened with realization and a sudden hope.  "That's true," I said to myself.  "I did say that today was going to be a good day." 

And I really did.  But as the day went on, I found it easy to forget about some promise I made to myself when I was half asleep, and focused on other things.

Have you ever done this?  You start out the day with bright hopes and a light heart, but then troubles and worries start to arise, and weigh everything down until you completely forget about your former plans to have a good day until you're lying in bed, wondering what on earth happened to make you feel so stressed out and tense. 

There are so many things that can mess up your day: school work, work-work, bad traffic, mean people, a hectic morning, an angry family member, tragedies, frustrations, illnesses... (the list could go on for pages and pages, but I think I'll stop with general topics.)  I want to encourage you to try to remember to stay positive, even when there seems to be no point to positivity. 

This reminds me of something that happened to me yesterday afternoon.  I was eating lunch with a few of my good friends.  I was feeling down in the dumps.  It was the first day of school after Christmas Break.  We already had homework.  I was tired.  Blah, blah, blah...  I was silently thinking of all of this when one of my friends looked around, beamed widely, and said, "This is such a great day!  This is one of my favorite days!"  She then proceeded to list several good things that had happened to us that day, things that I had not credited into my thought process until just then.  She was being optimistic, and her words truly did brighten up the rest of my day.

When you are having a stressful day... when you are feeling tense and frustrated, I encourage you to stop for a moment and list to yourself a few good things that happened throughout the day.  And if you can't think of anything, think about the good things that Jesus has given you in your life in general... and if you still can't think of anything, then you can remember the salvation and the love and the grace that He has given to you!