peace | Blessed to be Broken

Day by Day

by Trish Cordell

Music. I’m so thankful for music. Without warning, songs make their way in my brain and just like that I’m wandering down a path of remembrance.

The song that popped into my head as I sat down to write was the title of the blog. Day by day. It was a song released in May of 1972. I can’t even tell you the last time I thought of this song. But, here it is.

I’m also thankful for Google. How cool that in this day and age we can type a few words in a search engine and have the information pop up at our fingertips? If you didn’t have to wait for the library to open, so you could rummage through the card catalog to find the information you needed; you’re blessed!

I needed Google so I could find the rest of the words that went with the parts of the song that I knew. They’re aren’t a lot of lyrics to this song. It’s a song from a Broadway play called Godspell. The lyrics are simple:

“Day by day
Day by day
Oh Dear Lord
Three things I pray
To see thee more clearly
Love thee more dearly
Follow thee more nearly
Day by day”

That’s it. For about 3.5 minutes those words are repeated over and over. Only the tempo of the music changes.

Simplicity is not given enough credit. Over thinking, over complicating, and over emphasizing seems more the flavor of the day.

How often have you heard someone say “I wish things were simpler”? Or, “Back in the day, things were so much easier”.

We forget that “back in the day” they also had their troubles. No doubt they too wished for simpler days. There isn’t a single generation that didn’t come with their own issues.

Things have progressed with each generation and we still aren’t happy. We’re still not filled. We’re still found wanting. We’re still looking for the thing that will make us rich, powerful, rich, famous, rich, and satisfied.

It’s no different than when I was growing up and thought all my blonde friends had what I needed or wanted. Or how I thought having the body style and size of someone else would magically make me feel more worthy and wanted. Or wanting to be just like somebody other than myself.

At what point do we ever say, enough? I have enough. I don’t need any more. I’m thankful for all I have. If you’ve gotten to that point, please let me know you’re secret.

When the Israelites were wandering around in the desert God provided their daily manna. If they took too much, it spoiled. They were instructed on how much to take for their day to day.

When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, He said, “give us this day our DAILY bread”. (Emphasis added).

That didn’t stop them from wanting. Like I said, each generation had their issues. Question is, are we learning yet? Or are we repeating the past just in different ways? I’m gonna just leave that there for you to ponder on. You’re welcome!

Back to the song, and yes, I’m totally singing it as I type it. It’s how I roll.

“Day by day
Day by day
Oh Dear Lord
Three things I pray
To see thee more clearly
Love thee more dearly
Follow thee more nearly
Day by day”

Lord, let me see you more clearly. To know your heart.

Lord, let me love you more dearly. Because of who you are.

Lord, let me follow you more nearly. Because you’re the only example of what true love is.

Those 3 things are on a whole other level of wanting. It’s a running after the Father’s heart. Maybe, just maybe, if we did these 3 things daily, there’d finally be true peace on earth; good will toward men. And we could truly love one another as our Heavenly Father instructed us to do.

Peace to you my friends.

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#Peace~~Getcha some!!

by Trish Cordell

“#Peace– Is it possible to make #peace with the realities of our bodies? How?”

This is one of the topics over at Proverbs 31 Blog Hop for our on-line Bible study Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst. There were more, topics but this one reached out to me as soon as I read it. My first thought was a snide….yea, right, sure..let me get right on that #peace with my body train. Mmm hmmm. Pure disdain in that first thought. But then I switched gears and thought positively, yea, right, sure…let me get right on that #peace with my body train!! Cuz this is one mentally tired girl from the constant battle in my own head that my body is not good enough!!

When I think of the word battle, I think of a fight between opposing opponents. My only opponent is my mind. I’m literally beating myself up. It’s like when my brother would take my arm in his hand and proceed to hit me in the face with my own hand, saying “stop hitting yourself.” If you’ve ever had that happen, you know what I’m talking about and no doubt just got a little annoyed.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been losing my own battle because of what? Numbers on a scale that don’t reflect what I want? Societal standards of skinny, curvy, fat, or obese…pretty, beautiful, gorgeous or that horrible word ugly? And those are just general areas. I could totally dig deeper and start picking on features…like cellulite for example. Every single one of those things is superficial. And seriously, who gets to make those standards and then label me anything less than who I am?

Maybe it was my mom, who to this day, beats herself up and passed it down onto me. Maybe it was the boys who didn’t choose me or the girls who laughed and talked behind my back. Unfortunately, that’s the type of stuff that can take up permanent residency in a place where it doesn’t belong and in reality, no one but me has the power to make myself feel less than who I am.

Lysa wrote in her book “I don’t know a woman alive who is completely happy with her body.” I thought about that and like her, I can honestly say, in my circle of friends not one of them has ever said…I love the way I look!! That’s so sad..isn’t that just so very sad? Sadder still, even when I was “skinny,” I called myself “fat.” Now that I’m bigger, I wish I was as skinny as when I thought I was fat. My brain is tired of this insanity!!

The mean girl in me that mentally abuses myself has lived with me for far too long. It’s time I looked her straight in the face and told her get out!! You’re being evicted and there’s no other space for rent!! There’s a new landlord in town and she’s at #peace with the body God so very graciously and lovingly gave to her.

You see, God is all that and a bag of chips!! He calls me by name, and says “My Grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-NIV) So any weakness I have, I’m covered by His power. That power by the way, raises the dead to life. Just sayin’ So now I can answer that question of how I can be at #peace with the realities of my body.

In my own strength, I will never have peace, but given His strength, His wisdom, His love, and His truth, I have all the #peace I want. I know that if #peace is gone, then I moved. And I know if I moved, He is still there…always and forever….there!! Go getcha some #peace and while you’re at it, grab onto the Love and share Him with everyone you can….including yourself!!