Do you ever have days when you fall into bed and think, “Whew! I’m glad that’s over.” I call them crash and burn days, days when we need fresh strength and hope.
My last crash and burn day started with a jolt. Instead of leisurely quiet time with God to prepare myself for the day, I slurped down coffee and did Bible speed reading. Then I hurried to get dressed for a 7:00 a.m. online meeting. (Because who wants to show up for a video call in pajamas and bedhead?)
Then homeschool with a sweet, lovely, stressed out, and tired teen. For several hours, I read and critiqued a research paper, checked math, and put out chemistry fires. Next, I tried to research MLA citation formatting while simultaneously trying to drop and add community college classes by phone. In between everything else, I cooked a big meal for lunch since we’d be on the road during dinner.
After lunch, my lovely teen and I had a mother daughter meltdown.
By 2:00 p.m., my needle dipped below empty due to sleep deficit from the night before. Whatever encouragement I’d gotten from my morning Bible speed reading was long gone.
Ever have moments when your biggest hope is just to make it to the end of the day?
Not a very optimistic outlook, is it?
The next time you’re having a crash and burn day, hang on to a bigger hope than surviving.
Remember that we have a Savior who can redeem a lot more than a bad day. Pray for yourself this same prayer Paul lifted up for the Ephesians:
Ask for God’s Strength
Friend, even when we wake up tired, we can trust God to strengthen us physically and energize us spiritually. God makes available to us the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. Let’s ask Him for it on tired mornings: “Lord, fill me with your holy power. Give me strength for whatever you put on my plate today.”
And when it’s 4 o’clock, and we’re running on empty, we can pray again, “Lord, pour on your power.” Let’s trust Him. Let’s believe that God will strengthen us by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Remember Jesus is with you.
Jesus lives in you. He’s at your side, and He goes before you. Ask for His help. On crash and burn days, Jesus is the ultimate Game-Changer and Hope-Renewer. He guides and gives grace. He provides peace in the storm and rest from the rat race. When a bad day pushes you over the edge, Jesus comes to the rescue. When you blow up, Jesus forgives. His mercies are new every hour, not just every morning.
He can turn a bad day around.
With Jesus at your side, and His Holy Spirit in you, you can make it through a not-so-great day. There’ll be strength for each task. There’ll be peace from His presence. There’ll be grace to laugh over meltdowns. And there will be hope.
Hope that through Jesus, we have a reset button.
Hope that as we trust in Him, our next day will be different.
Hope that in Christ, our next hour can be different
So the next time you’re having a bad day, stop and remember Jesus. Call on Him. His presence can turn any day around.
Now it’s your turn: What tips do you have for rescuing a bad day?
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I’m linking up with Holly Barrett’s Testimony Tuesday, Kelly Balarie’s #RaRaLinkup, Tuesday Talk with Ruthie Gray, Jennifer Dukes Lee’s #TellHisStory, Holley Gerth’s Coffee for Your Heart, Suzie Eller’s #LiveFree Thursday, #GraceandTruth, and Deb Wolf’s Faith ‘n Friends. Check out these communities for more encouragement.
Love that we can have the reset button – only wish I didn’t have to use it so often 🙂
Oh Kathryn! Believe me I use mine often too. Like once an hour-or more!- some days.
Oh my! I have plenty of those crash and burn days! The ones where I ask God for a do-over:) I know that I need a different perspective on those days. Beautiful post! Now, if I start having one of ‘those days’ I will remember to hold on to HOPE. Blessings friend!
That’s the great thing about HOPE, Kristine. It’s for good days and bad. 🙂
I was nodding my head “yes” throughout while reading your words. It seems you and I have both written about hope this week and believe me it is something that has been on my mind. It is also my one word for this year so it is amazing how it pops up all the time.
Everything points back to God, and I for one, need to start there instead of ending up there because I let my day derail first. Here’s hoping that we both remember to turn to God first for strength, hope and our every need. Blessings on the rest of your week!
Thanks so much for your encouragement, Mary. How wonderful that HOPE is your word for the year. Romans 15:13 is my all-time favorite Bible verse: “May the God of HOPE fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him….”
Yes, this is so true! I need to remember this. So often, I try to press through bad days and forget to pause and ask for the strength that I need from God.
Right? I do the same thing, Dawn. Just press through to survive til bedtime, when God has so much MORE! Blessings on you and your new book!
Hi Betsy! I love the way you ‘tell it like it is’. None of us escapes days like these. You are definitely not alone! I have many, many things to cram into these Tuesday hours, and I hope I can do it even though I am tired, on antibiotics and over-the-counter cold meds. Delightful, I assure you!
I think we have to allow ourselves that moment to regroup. Praying is just the best thing, if I don’t resort to mouthing the words and not believing what I say. (I can do that sometimes too!) May God help us all to keep our peace and patience, and work well through the challenges of this day. Amen!
Blessings,
Ceil
Amen, Ceil. Thanks for the encouragement here, friend. There is grace for each day. For this Tuesday and for tomorrow. That’s what I’m telling myself and believing!
What an encouraging word, Betsy!
I’m sharing this today on FB, Twitter, Stumble, and Pinterest!
Found your post on Tuesday Talk.
Hope you have a blessed day~
Melanie
Thank you so much, Melanie. Blessings to you too.
This is so good, Betsy! It goes right along with what we study in MTO and I’m saving it in my back pocket to share with the moms soon. One thing I’m trying to remember to do is pray Scriptures back to the Lord when I’m in a bad frame of mind. In MTO we have specific Power Packed Pillar Prayers and I’m drawing such strength from those! Beth Moore’s book, Praying God’s Word, really helped me put that into action a few years back when I was in dire need of rescue from a black pit.
Everything you’ve said here today is powerful, and also relateable. Oh, I SO remember those homeschool high school days of flip-flopping between chemistry, Algebra, ACT tests, and college applications – as well as care for my parents and a wedding to plan! It ALL happens at once in this stage of the game! 🙂
I LOVE that book Praying God’s Word! I actually haven’t read the whole thing, but I remember how powerful those prayers were. I prayed them every morning for a month. (I should open that again!) Yes, yes, yes to praying scripture. Thanks for the encouragement, friend. Yes, I don’t know who said home schooling high school was easy peasy because they’re independent learners. That person was wrong! 🙂 But there’s grace for each day.
Love this one, Betsy –> “The next time you’re having a crash and burn day, hang on to a bigger hope than surviving.” Yes! There’s so much more than simply surviving. Remind me of this mindset, okay?! 😉
Oh yes, there is. So much more than surviving!
Oh, those days really do sneak up on us! Grace upon grace for those days is right. [And a secret stash of chocolate.] Thank you for sharing authentically, Betsy.
Ha! That secret stash of chocolate probably does help!
Those days are HARD. I’ve had plenty in the past month, because of a lot of reasons. I’m sorry you had such a crash and burn day. I guess they happen to all of us. 🙂
I love how you encourage us to go back to Jesus. I’m so thankful that His mercies aren’t only new in the morning, He keeps renewing them for us throughout the day. One thing I sometimes do is give myself a time out, by myself. Spending some time listening to worship music, coloring or praying helps me regain a better perspective to carry on through the rest of the day.
Wow, that is a great idea, Jeanne. To take a time out. Worship music can change the tone of a less-than-stellar day for me too. Funny thing was that yesterday, the day I hit publish on this post, all kinds of things ended up going wrong! So I had a chance to put it into practice again. 🙂
Great encouragement, Betsy. Lord knows I have quite a few days that need rescuing it seems! 🙂
Lynette
Thanks, Lynette. May the Lord encourage you when you need a rescue!
He can turn a bad day around – oh, am I ever so grateful for that. I suppose the key is giving Him our day from the get go and then believing that one way or another, He will show up!! Hugs, friend.
Yes, Tiffany. I’m all for giving Him our day from the get go and then coming back to that surrender again and again. That’s so helpful. (But I do forget it some days. 🙂
I remember those kind of days when I had teenage daughters in the house that I was homeschooling. 🙂 Thankful that Jesus redeemed even those days!
Yes, Lisa. He redeems every day, doesn’t he?
Yes, I’ve been there and done that! So glad He is with us through those days as well. Thanks for these words! (Stopping by from Holley’s place and #TellHisStory)
Thanks for stopping by, Rachel. Blessings to you.
I’m a firm believer in the mighty power of the do-over. I’ve never used it on just myself (althought maybe I should), but when I’m having a meltdown with a family member or coworker, I’ll pause, pray and say, “Hey, can we just have a do-over?” I usually get strange looks the first time I employ this, but upon receiving permission for the do-over, I’ll start again with a totally different tone of voice and intention (usually an intention for understanding and not for winning 😉 ).
Oh boy, Betsy, I can relate to those crash and burn days. It used to be a typical Monday but thankfully I’ve made some changes to my schedule that make Mondays more manageable. Just trying to find my triggers and avoiding them (where possible) helps a lot. For the rest of it, I’m just thankful for grace.
Sharing this beautiful post, my friend!
Relevant! Relevant! Relevant!
Holding onto hope is what gets us through those eternal days. Funny, I’m posting about hope today as well.
I always love the beauty of your site — such great images to go with your words of grace!
“Ever have moments when your biggest hope is just to make it to the end of the day?” YES, YES, a thousand times YES. In fact, yesterday was one of those days. I just wanted to crawl into bed and disappear… But you are so right. Jesus can redeem so much more than a very bad day and He has the power to turn things around in the blink of an eye. Great post, Betsy!
Hope! I love this post!! #livefreeThursday
Love this, Betsy! It’s good to be reminded that in the midst of the mess – the rush – the failure, we can pause, lift our hearts to the Savior and receive His love and encouragement to keep on! Blessings to you!
Amen, Leigh Ellen! We can always pause, as you say. Pray and hit the reset button!
Great words, Betsy. I love the idea of a reset button!
I’ve really never thought to pray Ephesians 3:16-17 over my life when having a bad day. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Yes, Jerralea. Don’t we all need a reset button some days?
Oh Betsy … just the other day, first one daughter was crying about social studies homework being too hard, then later in the evening, the other one was crying over not understanding algebra (solving equations using substitution–who can blame her for crying?). Thankfully, this time we avoided the mother part of the mother-daughter meltdown, but we’ve had our share of those, too! This post is so encouraging, so refreshing, so filled with grace. And I loved this: “Hope that in Christ, our next hour can be different.” I’m so thankful the reset button doesn’t have to wait until tomorrow morning!
Oh me too, Lois. Some days, I need the reset button and the new mercies each hour! (And I’m sure you can relate to stress over school. When we mothers can avoid the meltdown, things do go better, don’t they? But it’s so hard for me to avoid sometimes. 🙂 )
Betsy.
So truly grateful for God’s holy reset button…we can turn to Him at any time and ask for strength…and yes, I can relate to that feeling of feeling “not enough” for a day’s tasks although our circumstances are different. Thanks for encouraging us 🙂
Oh I’m grateful for that too, Dolly. It’s amazing how God’s grace can get us through a bad day (and the truly hard ones too.)
I’ve had moments like that and can’t get to sleep. thanks for the reminder we have a reset button – He’s so good to us.
Oh yes, Christine, it’s happened to me too. That’s when we need the reset button before hitting the pillow at night! 🙂
I’m so thankful for the fact that I can call out for His power over and over throughout the day! Cuz this Mama has days THAT many crashes in one day! Ha! Thank you for the great post!
Blessings and smiles,
Lori
Blessings back to you, Lori. Thanks for reading.
I have to admit that every day lately has been one of those days.
Oh Barbie, I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve had a string of those before too. Blessing and grace to you, friend.
I am really enjoying your blog. This post is great on how to recover from a bad day. Also, right on time.
Oh, I hope that this “right on time comment” doesn’t mean you’re having a bad day, Rebeca. Grace to you, sister!
I have had days like that before and today could’ve turned out to be one. The morning was not shaping up to be a good one. I was cranky! So, I prayed. I asked God to help me. And He did. I think I need to try to remember to turn to Him right away from now on – easier said than done, hey?