Momentary Discouragements

​I'll be completely honest; this post isn't going to be deep, creative, or soul-searching. It's just in-the-moment-real. I wrote a blog, and then it got disappeared into the vast internet space when our wifi went out for a minute. Somewhere in internet space there's a massive pile of writing from frustrated people who've lost research papers, chapters, articles, and blogs. I'm sure there is a way to hunt it down, or to better prevent that from happening, but oh well. Just oh well.

That happened one time when I started working on my book. Spencer hung out with Katherine so I could go off and write for a bit. I cheerfully went to the park and sat in the grass typing away. It was a lovely and inspiring morning. Until I sat in Starbucks after it got too hot outside, opened my computer, and couldn't find the chapter I had just written. All those words. Gone. Vanished. Another of chapter, filled with words spilled out from the heart, added to the pile of lost work in internet space. 

Today's blog was a short one. Not a big deal. Although I did have to take a few deep breaths, I got over it quickly. That chapter took me a little longer to get over. But in either case, it's a moment I get to preach to myself.

"Grace, Sarah. Give yourself grace and start again." 

The words that disappeared just didn't need to be read. Different words will come, and just maybe they will be delivered just when they need to be read. God is sovereign over all.

When the little stuff happens that can easily frustrate, discourage, distract, God remains on His throne. And from His throne He whispers that His kind and fierce and deep love remains the same. His promises are true. His Word stands firm. His character never changes. 

No matter what happens that causes us to take deep breaths and start again, grace shows itself in the starting again. Grace shows Himself when we choose to cling to Him and His truths instead of allowing frustrations to fester.

When we take our gaze off of our momentary discouragements and look up to our God on His eternal throne, grace falls down on us. And the Grace sustains us, grows us, sanctifies us through it all.