Lord, Give Me Strength

In my youth, my mother's favorite saying when things seemed to be spiraling out of control was, "Saint Jude, sit on my shoulders." I'm not quite sure what that really meant, but I knew that whenever she said that, I backed away slowly and quietly without any sudden moves. My favorite saying is, "Lord, give me strength." And at the time that I say it, it's more like a demand then a request. Well, today was one of those, "Lord, give me strength" days.

Things were settled with the little one. She was playing quietly. (Hooray! A silent victory parade marched through my mind.) When the doors to chaos seemed to open wide. Slowly, we managed to get everything back on track after I broke into a cold sweat and some blood vessels popped deep in my brain. And then I said it, "Lord, give me strength."

I realized that by saying this, what I really do is take a deep breath, stand back. and reevaluate what the real problem is in the middle of all the craziness. AH. Then slowly, with some divine intervention, things seem to right themselves temporarily. Sometimes, I need to talk about it, write about it, or just do something different for my nerves to settle down. When all the dust settled today, I did have strength.