You’re One Tough Cookie

“You are one tough cookie”

I received this this text from a friend after we got home from a late night, where we ended up in conversation about something very personal. I immediately shot back a text of “yeah right”… and then went on to list all the reasons why I wasn’t in fact tough, but almost to prove my weakness. To which she replied…

“Those things are what make you strong”…

I stared at my phone and then began to cry. Because the reality is, in that moment I realized I spend more time convincing myself I’m weak, by concentrating on my failures, then proving to myself that I’m strong by concentrating on my victories.

I know I’m not alone in this. Friend, I know that’s you too…I know there are days where you can only see your weaknesses. There are some days, you wonder if you have any strength even left in you because life has dealt you what feels like a losing hand, over and over again.

Just yesterday my sweet girl ran into church, so excited to get to her kids class, but unfortunately about 10 seconds later the handrail in the hallway took her out… face first.

After she wiped away tears, and ran her fingers over the boo-boo on her face she looked up at me and so innocently asked

“why does life have to be so mean sometimes?”

And as much as I wanted to give her some profound answer, all I could do was hold her tight. Because the truth is, I didn’t have an answer.

I think we all have those moments in life, where it feels like life is literally beating us up. Where nothing seems to go right, or maybe just when you are excited to run in to a fun part of life, something comes along to to knock you off your feet.

We’ve had our share of that in the last month. It’s been a challenging few weeks, and there were times I just wanted to throw my hands up and cry Mercy.

But just as I encouraged my daughter to ice her eye, and then to move on and go sing songs & play games with her friends in church class, we too must keep going. We too must remember that it gets better, that all these seasons of challenges are there to grow us. Our life isn’t defined by our highs and lows… it’s defined on how we deal with those highs and lows, and every average day in between. Nor is life defined by our strengths or weaknesses. We are not the sum of our weaknesses. We are not the sum of our strengths. Our total comes from what we do with both our strengths and weaknesses. Our highs and our lows.

I don’t know what you’re dealing with today Momma, I don’t know what it is that left you asking why life can be so mean sometimes. But I can say, don’t let it define who you are. It’s time to stand up again. It’s time to decide this isn’t going to break you. Instead of declaring Mercy, let’s declare grace. Grace for ourselves, and grace to others who may have a hand in why you’re feeling like this.

I pray today is the day you decide not to give up, but instead, to march on with your head up, because Momma, you’re one tough cookie.