Grace for Grocery Shopping

Hello blogging buddies! I've had some of you express your concern that I might have fallen off the face of the earth, but.... I'm still here! No good excuses, just complete, total laziness. That's all.

The truth is that for the last few weeks, I've been struggling. Not in a deep, serious, life-threatening way. In a "I'm gonna lose it if I have to pick up one more toy" or a "Didn't I just feed these children" kind of way. In a "the air conditioner isn't working, I dropped and broke my most expensive bottle of make-up, and I've spent 29 hours a day with hyper children (who may or may not belong to me)" kind of way. And to top off my exhaustion and frustration I liked to end the days with a big helping of guilt as I thought about all the people in the world who have REAL problems. So, that's where I've been.

Today, my buddy Kate sent me a text as I was walking into Wal-Mart with all 3 of my offspring. I texted her back and asked her to pray for me as I was about to attempt a grocery trip. She responded with this prayer,

"Dear Lord, Please help Emily survive Wal-Mart with all her little kiddos. Please help her stay strong and not give into buying ALL the junk food that they pick up. :) Give her the strength to say no. Hee hee! Help her get all her shopping done and be out of there in less than 1738228 hours! I love you Jesus. Amen!'

AMEN! First, I love someone who would put hee hee in a prayer. :) Secondly, I wondered how a teenager with no kids would know exactly the right things to pray for. And 3rd, I realized that while I feel like such a loser that I would need prayer to make it through a shopping trip, it really did make me feel better. And I came to the conclusion that life sometimes gets difficult for me because I forget how much I need God's strength. I think that I need to save my prayers for the big things. But the truth is, I'm just not as strong as I would like to think I am. And while I would love to report that I am as awesome as people come and I not only do it all, but I do it all by MYSELF, it would be a big.fat.lie. I'm just terminally human and weak. As soon as I start depending on my own strength, I fall BIG. I am so needy of the grace and power God offers me. I have to agree with the psalmist when he said,

 " My flesh and my heart may fail,



but God is the strength of my heart


and my portion forever."

Psalm 73:26

Just for the record, we made it out alive. At one point I thought we were going to have to turn right back around because every time I looked in the rearview mirror the kids had pulled a different snack out. It's a nine day wonder we made it home with any food left. But TWO Wal-Mart trips in one day????? We woulda had to ring up the church's prayer chain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!