Unexpected encouragement

God sends encouragement from the strangest people and in the most unexpected places.  

Lately I’ve been feeling… well… irritable. My hormones are all off kilter from the pregnancy and when I don’t eat quite frankly- I’m a bear. For whatever reason it just seems that there’s never anything around to eat even when my pantry is stocked and full, probably because I’m waiting too long before feeding myself and therefore starving!

So internally I’m constantly checking my thoughts before I speak and having to take a lot of deep breaths to control my tongue (and then I still get in trouble).  This constant battle has left me feeling icky. I’m not sure what it looks like on the outside but when I’m with my kids during the day and they start getting out of hand my first reaction internally is not the nicest even though the outcome on the outside generally is maintained.

In short I think I’m mean. I’ve been beating myself up for my internal struggle seriously thinking that I’m just a big meanie.

So me and my family are in the airport, my husband Kenny has taken my 19 month old Martin to the bathroom for a diaper change and my three year old Lucy and I are sitting at a restaurant type place looking thru her specially packed airport backpack. She pulls out one of the unopened toys and refuses my help to open it (not shocking) so I show her how she can do it by pointing and verbally instructing.

The lady sitting behind me caught my eye and she said “your so nice”. Now that may not seem big to you but to me it was just what I needed and put a smile on my face. I hadn’t realized just how badly I had been feeling about myself till that moment.

God really can use anyone or anything and did! This random lady must have told me I was nice like 4 times and then proceeded to tell my husband how nice I am when he came back from the bathroom.

I was taken by surprise. I like it when stuff like that happens and I choc it up to God who apparently knew that I not only needed some insight into my own mind but encouragement to move forward. Nice. Maybe half the time I don’t notice things like this but it’s really nice when I do.

Author: Erica Petrowski

Married for over 15 years and a stay at home mother of 4. I have a bachelor's degree in Interior Design, an associates degree in fine arts and years of experience in customer service. I rededicated my life to Jesus in 2000, & hail from Long Island New York. My Husband and I moved to Arizona in January of 2011.

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