You've Got This (Because God's Got You): 52 Devotions to Uplift and Encourage
224
You've Got This (Because God's Got You): 52 Devotions to Uplift and Encourage
224Hardcover
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781496430649 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Tyndale House Publishers |
| Publication date: | 09/04/2018 |
| Pages: | 224 |
| Sales rank: | 218,007 |
| Product dimensions: | 4.30(w) x 6.10(h) x 0.60(d) |
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Because Some Days Are Poodle-Haired
This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
PSALM 118:24
YESTERDAY WAS JUST one of those days — a day when everything went wrong and nothing went right. I overcurled my hair so it closely resembled a poodle's and forgot to set the timer on the coffeemaker and ran into a sticky spiderweb and just missed the 90-percent-off sale in the clearance aisle at Hobby Lobby. I awkwardly wasn't funny when I thought I was going to be, and on five different occasions I opened my mouth and inserted my foot.
I was still frowning when I arrived to pick up my daughter Whitney from basketball practice that afternoon. As she slowly climbed into the car, I sighed impatiently. Then I made my way down the back roads to our farmhouse while the same thought kept spinning around in my head like a chorus in a song: Why? I thought. Why did a day like this have to happen to me? Where's the sunshine?
When we pulled up to the house, I grabbed my bags, shut the door, and stomped up the sidewalk. I got to the top step of the porch, turned around, and yelled across the yard: "Whitney! Where are you? We only have a few minutes before we have to leave for your brother's game. WE ARE GOING TO BE LATE."
A tiny giggle came from behind the car. "Hold on, Mom. I'll be there in just a sec." Then Whitney bounded up the sidewalk, grinning from ear to ear.
"Wait until you see this!" she said, holding out her phone. "You won't even believe it."
Irritated, I glanced down, expecting to see a social media post or a joke or something she thought was funny.
But instead?
It was a photograph she'd just taken of the sky overhead — an incredible, amazing, awe-inspiring glimpse of God's handiwork, with beams of sunlight dancing through the clouds. My anger melted away. This glorious scene had been unfolding in the sky before me, and I'd been so focused on myself and my hair and my clearance-aisle mishap that I almost missed the amazing right in front of me.
How often do we turn our gaze inward and overlook the beauty our heavenly Father has prepared for us? How often do we concentrate on the things of this world instead of turning our eyes to what's truly important?
Whatever you're facing today, take time to look up and remember that God's big enough to handle it. Even if your hair has gone poodle on you.
* * *
Dear Lord, help me to turn my focus on you. Even on days when the storm clouds gather, I know you have your hand on me. Amen.
CHAPTER 2The Day I Forgot My Skirt
As the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand.
JEREMIAH 18:6, NLT
I STARTED MY BLOG WITH LOFTY AMBITIONS.
I had big plans. I was going to write a blog about decorating — the kind of decorating you read about in magazines. I was going to opine on neutrals and how to fit them into your decor. I was going to discuss in great detail the height of a chandelier over the dining room table. The blog would be full of well-written posts on color choices and design trends and why shag carpeting was so 1972.
I knew I needed to start with pictures. But the only camera I owned was the kind you threw away after you used it, so I hired a photographer to come to my house and take photographs of my Christmas decorations. When the pictures came back, I was in awe. They were the most beautiful photographs I'd ever seen.
I couldn't wait to show them to the world.
I gathered my photographs and my courage and my overflowing bucket of optimism and sat down at the computer to write the first post. I uploaded the first picture and started typing a lengthy essay on how gray and silver were the go-to Christmas colors of that year. And then? I noticed something that made me cringe — something that made me hang my head and rethink my entire blogging career.
There in the photo was the living room with its decked halls. The garlands were wrapped around the banister. The stockings were hung by the mantel. And in the very center of the room, under my tree where a tree skirt should have been, were the most gigantic plastic tree-stand feet you've ever seen in your entire life.
Somewhere along the way, I'd forgotten my Christmas tree skirt.
The blog I started wasn't the one I intended to publish. Instead, I wrote about imperfection and decorating mistakes and the fact that my Christmas tree was naked at the bottom. And with every line, every word, every misstep, I found my voice.
God created us all to be unique. He is the potter; we are the clay. He gave each of us talents and gifts and our own individual strengths. God never intended for us to compare ourselves with others or to long to be like someone else. He wants each of us to embrace the person he designed us to be.
Even if you have a Christmas tree that needs to get dressed.
* * *
Lord, thank you for making me unique. Thank you for the gifts you've given me. Let me use those gifts to honor you today. Amen.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "You've Got This! (because God's Got You)"
by .
Copyright © 2018 KariAnne Wood.
Excerpted by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.
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