Laugh Without Fear of the Future?

“She Clothes herself with strength and dignity, she can laugh at the days to come.”
– Proverbs 31:25

Have you ever read that and thought, “Are you kidding me?” You look around and see the bills are stacked up without money to pay them, the dirty laundry is lying in various places in the house, the children are fighting again, the husband is late getting home from work and when the bill collector called to ask when you were making payment, you burnt the only decent supper you’ve made all week.

Or maybe your “days to come” are following this: You just buried your mother, your father has cancer and can no longer care for himself and that responsibility will now fall to you. Not only will he be coming to live with you so you can care for him, but it will also be necessary for you to supplement his financial resources too.

Just maybe this is your scenario: your youngest child just left for college, she is the baby of four children. Children have been in and out and through your home with friends and school and church activities for some 25 years plus. Now, here you are with the man sitting across the table from you who is feeling the passing of time as father, and the grief for his absence from so much of their time in life in your home. You must find some way to know and enjoy each other again.

Maybe this rings true for you. He was a “hunk of a guy” so kind, romantic, fun to be with. He swept you off your feet literally. It wasn’t long after you were married you realized he was not exactly who he seemed he was when you first met him. He struggled with addictions and at times, his former professed Christianity looked pretty weak. Now there are children, precious children, and your concerns for their futures, and their well being, both emotionally and spiritually, seem to drain the very life out of you. “Laugh at the days to come?” you say.

It was with much anticipation of a bright future when you left home, went to and completed college, earning a degree. Then you started out really on your own trying to figure out where to live, where to work, how to build a life….without a mate. Now what. That hadn’t exactly been your heart’s desire, but here you are 26 years old, college finished, a good job and nice housing lined up, and all alone. All you have ever wanted since you were a little girl was some Godly man to love you, care for you, and together build a home, a family, a life. What happened to this long awaited dream?

In this your story? You are a single mother of four elementary and toddler age children. You don’t know how this happened, even though it’s been this way for two years. Sure, the marriage had it’s troubles, don’t all marriages? One day circumstances brought things to a head and you filed for a divorce. Your former husband pays his child support, but it takes much more to provide for the needs of you and the children. Your days are full of early mornings, days of work, return to a home with children with needs of school and church activities, household duties, struggling to pay the necessary bills, let alone pay for any of the extra’s. Never mind your dreams: a loving husband and a comfortable home and family. What happened to all of that? And you are supposed to “Laugh at the days to come? Are you kidding me?”

It’s the third time and your heart can’t take anymore. Three pregnancies, three mis-carriages. Who would have thought such heartache was possible to live with. Who ever knew that miscarriage could happen. You maintained your purity while single so you could come to your husband pure. You married and settled into life and shortly thereafter, began plans to start a family. You were so excited when a year and a half into marriage, you found out you were pregnant. There were special announcements made and given to parents and brothers and sisters on both side of the family. Then it happened. You lost the baby. A year later, you lost another. And now you were returning home to an empty house, with a full nursery prepared to welcome the child that only yesterday rested securely in your womb. The pain is horrific! “Laugh?”

Expectations! They can bring excitement and joy in the anticipatory stage, but when what we expect doesn’t take place, that grief an take our joy away and we don’t see the possibility of “laughing at the days to come.”

We need not be defeated! We can be victorious by living in the strength found in Christ. We can live with dignity knowing that we are the daughter of the King. We can have assurance that God is on his throne and we can laugh at the days to come.
Strength, Dignity and Laughs….can be yours!

Contact me for a free exploratory coaching session.

Strength, Dignity and Laughs!

Linda Berg