Ordinary Victories

Fireworks are beautiful but the ordinary beauty of the night sky is also spectacular. 

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory. Psalm 149:4 NIV
It started out to be a fairly normal day. Music lessons in the afternoon. I thought, no problem I can do a little extra practice and prep work in the morning. Then we got a call from one of my older son's friends. Do you know Kalena is moving and is having a going away party today? Nope - some how we missed the memo. I had talked to Kalena's mom a week or two ago and she said nothing about moving to Texas. So I thought I better check out the story and make sure it was legit. Sure enough they are moving on Tuesday. In the craziness she missed telling me.
Well that changed my day a bit because Texas is pretty far from Spokane and it is important to celebrate and say fair well to friends. So I looked at the clock and calculated if I could make the 45 minute drive to get Niah there and myself back in time for lessons. Let me tell you it was cutting it pretty close. I would not have been able to pull it off if my mom had not been here to take Cai on ahead to lessons. I got back in time for my lessons with about 2 minutes to spare.
Cutting it a little close. Then I did all my lessons and drove back out to pick up Niah and his friend. So I did about five hours of driving today in addition to teaching lessons.

I don't know what this has to do with "the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory." Other than to say that some how it all worked out. Everyone got to where they needed to be and although it was a lot of driving I enjoyed talking with Niah and his friend on the way there. The way back I had to rush a bit but tried to mentally prepare for the lessons ahead.
The drive back later in the day was nice, my mom went with me and we had a nice time chatting and the time passed quickly. The way back the car was full of people sharing about the day and that drive passed pretty quickly as well.

I came home and found a recipe for energy bars made with chia seeds and decided to make that, because low carb energy bars would be nice to have on days when I am on the go.  So I got those done and they are out of the oven cooling. I won't eat one till tomorrow because chia seeds are pretty amazing energy boosters and I'd like to sleep tonight. We already learned that lesson the hard way. I did try a tiny nibble and they are pretty good - I'll make them sweeter next time.

So it is late and I am finally getting around to writing.
Victories are not always big things. Sometimes its just a busy day turning out ok. Navigating it with out getting all stressed out. I call them ordinary victories. No one's going to give you a medal for such victories. In fact most of the time no one even notices them. Maybe even you take the ordinary victories for granted. I like today's verse.  It is good to remember that the Lord takes delight in you. You are one of his people. Your day and how it goes matters to God. Stuff works out for the humble. I'm not saying humble like door mat, rather humble acknowledging that God is with you. That you as a practice look to God to lead you by His Holy Spirit even on days that take unexpected turns. No medals but the satisfaction of knowing you navigated through a mine field of things that could have gone wrong but didn't.

The Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory. Psalm 149:4. Maybe not a particularly profound post but perhaps there is some value in rejoicing in the ordinary victories of your day. There are people and things to be thankful for. Our whole life is not made up of those mountain top experiences. Sure they are nice when they happen but the vast bulk of our lives are lived out in normal everyday stuff. There is joy and value in living your ordinary days well in the presence of the Lord. The stuff that did not go as well as you hoped .... well tomorrow is a new day and there will be new opportunities to fine tune things. We learn, we adjust, we look for ways to make life better not just for ourselves but for the people who grace our days. 

I read a quote that I liked. "At any point, an artist can change the painting. So can you. You are the artist, the designer of your own life." ~ Gerrie - Ellen Johnston

Prayer: I pray that the Lord will help you to see the ordinary victories. That He will help you to be aware of His hand of favor, grace and mercy upon your life. That you will be keenly aware of His enormous love for you. That you will be so full of His life, that it will over flow and touch everyone around you with His love.