Day 137: How Are You?

Ecclesiastes 3:4

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

“Hello, How are you?”

“I’m good, and you?”

“I’m great, thanks for asking.”

This conversation or set of statements look familiar to you? We go through these statement on a daily basis. Without really thinking about it; it has become second nature to already have a prepared answer when asked how we are doing. Usually, the answer is, “good”, “great”, “fine”, and on a rare occasion we might get an “okay”, Rarely do we tell people how we are actually doing, not even our closest friends.

“How are you?” has become another way of saying hello, instead of a real concern. I’m not saying that we are not concerned with how others are doing, I’m saying that the question “how are you?’ does not mean how are you anymore. It means hello. Many times we already know what people are going to say when we ask and we know what to say when we are asked. But I have a question, if God asked us how we were doing, what would we say? Would we be honest with Him about everything going on with us, or would we tell Him that we are “fine” or good?

Now to take it a step further, sometimes we say fine when everything is falling apart, we say well when we are doing terrible, and we say okay as a cry for help. This may not be true for everyone, but I know it is true for many of us. We talked before about how there are many people walking around broken and if we just take the time to pray for them or with them, they will experience God’s healing. We talk about how we can save a life just by checking in on someone. Now what about ourselves, what about when we are walking around broken. Many of us are walking around broken but ignoring our feelings. We must stop this and take care of ourselves.  We often believe in healing from God for others, but why is it so hard to believe for ourselves? Why is it so hard to pray for ourselves? Why is it so hard to check in with ourselves when we are falling apart? Why do we cover up our own pain? We are not helpful to anyone else if we are at the bottom of the pit ourselves. It reminds me of when I’m having a bad day and I’m sure most of us have experienced this. I can walk around falling apart on the inside, but I’m holding it together on the outside, barely, but I’m holding it together. The moment someone asks if I’m okay, everything comes pouring out. We hold things in until we cannot hold it anymore then it all comes storming out of us. We hold too much in and we become like a ticking time bomb, all it takes is for someone to press the right button and we will explode all over the place. My friends, this is not how we are destined to live, we serve a God who works around the clock, giving us twenty-four-hour service. We can come to Him at any time of day or night and He will be there. We do not have to harbor the pain we go through. We do not have to silence our struggles or whatever it is we are going through. We do not have to suppress our emotions, it is okay. God is here for us.

We neglect ourselves too often, sometimes we have to sit back and consider how we are actually doing. What’s going on inside us, check in on our soul, see how everything is going. We all want to be selfless, but that does not mean that we neglect ourselves to do so, it does not mean that we forget about our own feelings. Sometimes we just have to stop and pray for ourselves, sometimes we have to cover ourselves. Sometimes we have to give ourselves some “me time”. It is necessary, please don’t neglect or overlook yourself, it’s not a healthy way to live.

Reflection

1. How are you doing?
2. Really, how are you doing?
3. If God asked you how you were doing right now, what would you say?
   
   

Prayer Time

Take the time today to check in with yourself, search your heart. Bring it to God. Pray for yourself today, you know what you need to pray for yourself, lift yourself up in prayer today.

I love you, and I pray you have an amazing day or evening. Take care of yourself today. Share this with someone and be sure to come back tomorrow for Day 138! Enjoy you day!!!