Keeping focus

This afternoon as I dragged myself on a short walk, the clouds were hovering over the mountains, and I walked in alternating drizzle and sunshine. The air was cold and moist, and smelled fresh and clean, and rainbows came and went from the clouds. They reminded me of God's promises.

I feel like my heart is always fighting my body these days... My heart is joyful and my mind full of great ideas, and my body is weary and painful and doesn't want to do any of them. *sigh*

But Paul reminds us not to lose heart. I have memorized these verses, and say them over and over to myself in those times when I am tempted to loose heart:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
~2 Corinthians 4:16-18

So, I pick up my eyes from where they have wandered, unbidden: from despair, and frustration, and weariness. And I look at Christ: the One who died for me, who made me His own. He calls me to live as His chosen bride: free of condemnation, holy and blameless, adopted by grace, accepted for His sake, redeemed, forgiven, abounding in the riches of wisdom and prudence, knowing God's will and good pleasure, gathered to Him, obtaining an inheritance, predestined according to His purpose, praising His glory, trusting in Him who is worthy of my trust, and sealed with His promise. I am His possession.

Who am I to complain so?