If you have 3 minutes for a laugh, enjoy! If not, read on! (It ties in. Really).
Yesterday my husband had a hard conversation that left him feeling blind-sided. Kind of like Peyton Manning getting sacked in the Super Bowl yesterday. It was an unexpected blow and hard to absorb. It left John, who is always steady, knocked off his feet like one of the guys slipping on that video. For a moment he was sprawled on the ground wondering “What just happened?”
It doesn’t matter the particulars of John’s surprise. It could be like anything in your life:
- a pink slip from your boss
- a conversation that blind-sides you
- a hard diagnosis
- a break up
- a bad grade after you studied hard
What do you do when it feels like you’ve been jogging along and all of a sudden you hit an icy patch and go toes over teakettle?
For me, my “go to mode” is basically ranting crazy bird. I get all squawky and feather flappy.
The other day John said, “For once could maybe I be the one to rant and you be the calm, reasonable one?”
Well, I get there eventually and am able to say along with him, “All will be well and all will be well and all will be very well. God’s got this.” 
But when my feet have slipped out from under me, three things help me get from crazy to calm. calmer.
1. Be still and do an assessment. Check to see what’s broken. (if anything). What’s the long-term and short term damage? Ask if you could have seen it coming. Been better prepared? Is there a way to avoid this ice patch in the future?
2. Pick yourself up and dust yourself off. And for us, that means praying to get perspective. It also means stepping back, and resting up, not rushing forward too quickly only to fall flat again. My default prayer in our recent slip has been from 2 Chronicles 2:12. “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.”
3. Put a different tune on your playlist. Sometimes as we’re jogging along, earbud in, the songs playing on our Nano shuffle are not ones that are helpful. They drown out words of truth and life that God wants to use to encourage us. Try this, by Audrey Asaad if you have 4 minutes and want some inspiration.
