Have you ever woken up in the morning and just known that it’s going to be one of “those” days?  Before your feet even hit the floor, you’re already frustrated and grouchy, and your to-do list or something from the day before is threatening to trip you up all day long.  You’re ready to cry and you haven’t even had breakfast yet.

And then when you finally talk yourself out of bed, it just gets worse.  You drop a fork on your foot while unloading the dishwasher.  You forget to put sugar in your coffee and then spill it all over the front of you.  You have a bad hair day.

Lots of other things contribute to “those” days: car trouble, financial trouble, a disagreement with a friend or family member, uncooperative children or pets or computers, etc., etc., etc.  It’s never anything big on “those” days, it’s just all the small things that make you want to scream, cry, throw things, or simply go back to bed and hide all day.

I’m having one of those days today.

So what can you do with these days that, no matter what you do, just don’t seem to want to go right?  In some cases, you can change your circumstances, and so, naturally, you should do that.  But sometimes, you’re just going to have a bad day, and you just need to deal with it. Sorry.

On days like today, I pull out one of my favorite verses in the Bible and do everything I can to do what it says:

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. ~ 2 Corinthians 10:5

On days when little, compounding frustrations can so easily overwhelm me, I make some very intentional efforts to take my thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ.  Here’s what I do:

  • Listen to some really good worship music.  This morning, I have this song floating around in my head:
  • Thank God for every tiny thing I can think of, especially things that relate to what is frustrating me (Thank You that the fork just bounced off my foot instead of going through it. Thank You that I have coffee to drink in the first place. Thank You that the garage is within walking distance and it wasn’t raining that hard.).
  • Go for a walk and take that time to rehearse God’s attributes.  Praise God for who He is because He is so much bigger than today’s little frustrations.
  • Pray for someone else.  There’s nothing like focusing on someone else to take your mind off yourself.

And once I’m done with those things, I take a deep breath and dive in.  It may still end up being a frustrating, tear-inducing day, but at the end of it, God is still in control, and my eyes have been on Him throughout it.

How do you make bad days a little better?