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Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Philippians 4:6

Do people tell you you’re doing great, but secretly you feel like you’re going from day to day–hour to hour, feeling overwhelmed? Having friends but feeling like your friends don’t really get you?

It’s okay—you’re not alone. Want to know the truth? Even non-widows feel this way. Being a widow simply means we can at least put a name to our adversity and share in a community to support one another.

Still, the adversity of having lost someone really special in your heart is one that just doesn’t go away. And the trials along with moving forward without him don’t go away.

And then…

There are moments of peace. They usually come when God or someone points out how well you are doing—or moments when you help another in distress and realize how far you have come.

Like when my teens had a sleepover the other night, and I heard them stirring downstairs in the morning. “Are you guys ready for breakfast?” I asked.

“After we finish part six,” they called back.

Part six? Are they playing a video game? “Part six of what?” I asked.

“Of the Bible!” they shouted back.

“Part six of the bible? What’s that?”

“No–not part six,” they laughed. “Mark 6”.

They had woken up and on their own decided to read the Bible together.

That’s a wink from the Lord. For that moment, all anxiety–gone.

Peace came and hung out with me for a while.

And then, the air conditioning broke.

It’s Sunday morning, the house is hot, and I’m supposed to go to worship, but the thought of replacing the ac and the thousands it will cost and the repairmen I will have to haggle with just overwhelmed me. In itself, this wouldn’t unnerve me, but I had recently been obsessing over my finances, having had to replace a car because the engine blew up and helping my oldest plan for college with no funds to pay for it.

All of these worries had me sitting alone in my kitchen aching with anxiety, then turning it over to Him, then taking it back into a dull ache, then trying again to give it to Him—over and over. I made the calls to an AC service. I prayed and wept. Thoughts about the wealthy man I turned down in marriage crept in, and then I remember that the Lord steered me away from that choice for good reason, and reminded me of that yesterday with my boys reading His Word.

And as I quietly breathed through these cycles of worry and release to the Lord in my kitchen, the phone rang.

It was my neighbor, Louis. “I wanted to let you know I heard your AC motor sounding bad, so I shut it off from the outside. It’s probably a fan motor. I just had my entire AC in my house replaced and I have the old equipment under the house, so if the repair man says you need new parts, just know I have them, and you won’t need to buy the parts.”

Another God-wink moment.

Thank you, God. You are there. Every step. I won’t be discouraged, and I will run the race fully.

These moments are gifts. They are glimpses of Heaven—of Truth. They remind us we have purpose in this season. Thank you, Lord, for Your encouragement, because we must keep our joy through our struggles!

Sister, remind yourself that we as widows aren’t the only ones who struggle. There comes that point in everyone’s life, when you experience first hand how empty the promises of the world are.

It’s not that the world is all bad, and there is so much beauty here too—but you somehow start to recognize that true joy, true contentment cannot come from our circumstances.

That’s when you thank God that He offers something eternal for us to hope for.

And you brush off the pain and move forward–every day– just focusing on what’s in front of you and never letting anxiety stop you.

Abba Father, help these sisters know that one day they will go Home, knowing this world offers nothing for them. But meanwhile, help them to enjoy what beauty there is here to enjoy and honor God by living each day here–an alien in this world– looking to do their Father’s Will. Amen.