What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?
What a profound question I find this to be. I’m not even sure I want to answer it, let alone if I can.
Six months is half a year and at my age you learn to spend your years more intentionally. There’s less room for error.
Presently, I am recovering from post traumatic stress and healing from complex grief due to persistent disturbances that unsettle my soul.
I can get easily rattled doing the simplest things. I wonder what a healed me looks like six months from now? My focus is training to be present today. Don’t look too far ahead. Elephants are meant to be eaten in small bites not devoured whole. Avoid getting mired in the past. The old adage teaches us there’s no sense in crying over spilled milk. Yesterday’s done, tomorrow’s not yet here. Do today.
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8 ESV
You’ve probably disappointed people. No doubt. I bet I have. But then, people have disappointed me too.
Do what’s in front of you, the Spirit reminds me. I breathe. Inhale. Exhale. My gaze returns to the screen as I sip my morning coffee. What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months? I dunno. Living?
I am reclaiming my health. Mentally. Physically. Emotionally. Spiritually.
I am reclaiming my marriage and my family. I LOVE my people and they LOVE me.
Walk through doors that are open, the Spirit whispers.
There are two art shows in my future. Both will hang within six months. One in June. The other in August. I’ve become a visual artist. When did that happen? I dunno. It kind of snuck up on me. My artwork shares the breadth of the human experience and human emotion. It encourages you and it challenges you. At least so I’ve been told. That’s my gift, perhaps. To encourage and to challenge.
The last several months have been tough but not without good. Yep, that’s right. Amid life’s inevitable hardships, God showed up and showed out. Encouragement and challenge. Both. And.
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
James 4:13-14 ESV
Sure, life’s slipped a little off track. But I remain confident that God will see me through. Six months from now I plan to be better than I am today. Hopefully, that’s true.
How about you? What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?
Until my next post…
Be salty, stay lit.
Rainer Bantau —The Devotional Guy™
#bgbg2#BibleGateway
The Stigma Stops Here.🛑
#mentalhealthmatters
The Devotional Guy™ 
Glad it resonated with you, Richard. Thanks for reading.
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Blessings Rainer. The verse from Micah 6:8 serves as a GPS signal into the future. Faith matures, trust grows, and God’s love continues to nourish each.
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