This day could have been called hot sauce and other fiery darts of  Hell.

Instead, it was just called Thursday. Let me explain…

This is my most anticipated day of each week. But I wasn’t prepared.

Stayed up too late, gleefully redecorating at 1:30 am. Forgetting with one car, that I needed to take my husband to work in a few hours.

No time for God first.

I tried to do my new exercise videos.  There was no cueing until you were mid-move. Frustrated I gave up and went off to appointments.

Without stopping to fuel up with God.

Appointments went well but took longer than expected so other things piled up. You know how that domino effect of moments lost work. They start tipping pretty quickly. A little more frustrated.

Not time for devotions yet, had to do a math lesson to help my teen.

Having a bad emotional day

Now I have a confession to make…

There are few greater understatements than to declare math is my weakness. My family’s highest source of entertainment is mimicking my math equations.

If you ask, What is 12×10? I won’t logically add a zero onto the 12.

Instead, I will ramble.  Hmmm, well, if you have 12 x 15 and divide by 4 plus 3 and then subtract 47…umm, let’s see…120?   They laugh so hard. I don’t blame them, I have no idea what I am saying either.

Today was the wrong day to tackle geometry.  I hope my mother doesn’t comment with copies of my report cards…

Frustration increased. And of course, still no time with God. Double frustration. Big mistake.

It was the next part when the temperature soared while I went to pick up a sweet friend to give her a ride. My air conditioning wasn’t working. And it was hot. Genuine Midwest style humid.

The air hasn’t worked well all week, which wouldn’t be such a biggie had we not just spent our life savings to repair it.

It would be an understatement to say I am not a fan of heat. I might be the only one in my geographic region that didn’t mind the Polar Vortex.

Rescue a bad day when you lose it

It is ugly when you don’t control your emotions and feelings.

That was it— I lost it.

I am often mellow and easy going. But sweating and sticking to pleather seats as if I had sprung 2 million XL bodily leaks (that is how many sweat glands are on the body, I checked!) sent me over the edge.

I wish I could say things got better quickly.

But, you know, that isn’t always how life works.

We push ourselves to the edge, don’t we? Overcommitting, overpromising, overextending, overthinking.

Overwhelming.

“When you react, you let other control you. When you respond, you are in control.”
― Bohdi Sanders

How to not let a bad day get you down

Can you control being emotional on your own? I can’t.

We don’t stop to fill up our peace reserves with The Giver of all good things. The restorer of our souls, our sanity.

Then we are taken aback when hell about breaks loose! We are stunned by our own ugliness.

The hardest part of days like these?  We are generally fully aware of how juvenile we are behaving. How ungenerous and whiny. The only thing we give freely are complaints.

I  can’t stand to waste a day.

To wallow in self-pity when there is true suffering in this world. And caring so very deeply about them, forces me to constantly assess why do I allow it?

Being hot? Doesn’t rate that high on the affliction scale.

But the truth is, the deepest honest and most shameful truth is, we all have a “hot” spot. The trigger that sends us reeling.

Taking down everyone in our path.

Stupid things like being late and broken air conditioners.

The final cue of the day, that rest was necessary, was in the form of my hot sauce packet from Taco Bell.

My own personal fiery darts.

My family started laughing.

Tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor…

Proverbs 16:32  Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty

We need margin to help control our emotions

If we continue to run on empty, we’ll explode.

It is imperative to stop and withdraw. Shore up our defenses and pick up a shield of faith.

The darts will fall away as we skillfully keep our shield between our light and momentary troubles and our tender spirit.

Resources to help rescue a bad day:

• The Art of Rest: Faith To Hit Pause In A World That Never Stops
• Peace with the Psalms: 40 Readings to Relax Your Mind and Calm Your Heart
• Find Peace: A 40-day Devotional Journey For Moms
• How to Keep House While Drowning: 31 days of compassionate help
• The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You (ps, I am an HSP, are you?)
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