Learn how to respond to and overcome tough times.
There you are, going about your everyday life, minding your own business and it hits.
Out of nowhere.
A phone call. A text. A conversation. A situation.
You didn’t expect it or maybe you’ve been running from it, but you can’t run any longer. It just became real and rocked your world.
Maybe it’s a diagnosis, a divorce, a demotion, a detour, but all of a sudden you’re experiencing tough times.
I remember it like it was yesterday. We were minding our own business, enjoying a family vacation visiting my husband’s parents in Pennsylvania. While feasting on pancakes after church at a large rural restaurant known for their just-tapped homemade maple syrup, I could tell our youngest, who was 11 at the time, wasn’t feeling well. I took her to the bathroom thinking she needed to throw up and a few minutes later she was in my arms, sprawled across the floor, with her lips turning blue after her body collapsed in what I assumed to be a grand mal seizure.
What was going on? I remember thinking to myself, “I must be dreaming, this isn’t happening to me, am I being punked?”
This was the straw the broke the camel’s back. You see, we were already going through tough times as my husband had quit his job as a pastor at a large church in the DFW metroplex about four months earlier. At God’s prompting we decided together that it was time for him to take a leap of faith and pursue the dream that God had placed in his heart years earlier.
In the previous four months we experienced so much “stuff” that I started to keep a list on my phone. I called it “My Redemption List.” This was a list of all the bad things that were happening during our leap of faith season. Every day I believed and decreed that God was redeeming those things one by one as well as the entire season for our family.
But this was a low blow. This one really hurt. Shortly after this bathroom experience our daughter, our sunshine, was diagnosed with epilepsy.
Maybe you’ve been there too… or are there… or for sure will be there.
You’ve been standing on a promise, following a dream, or just living your life.
You may have just been knocked down and feel like you have been punched in the gut. The wind has been taken out of your sail. Where do you go from here? How do you keep the low blow from keeping you down? Should you get up or move on?
How to Overcome Tough Times
You may not be able to control a lot of the things that happen in life, but you can control how you respond to the blows. You have four choices. They are truly up to you. But how you respond will determine what happens next.
Give Up
It’s been too hard for too long to stand on the promise without seeing the results. You just don’t know how to keep going. You can choose to give up and move on.
Give In
You can give in to what’s happening. Give in to what you feel, become negative and live in what is happening in your natural circumstances. You may be tired of being tired so it seems easier just to give in.
Give It Over to God
You can’t do it, but God can. You can choose to lay it at His feet, maybe for the first time or the millionth, and seek Him. Seek the giver, not the gift. Let Him be your source for everything you need right now.
Give It A Loud “Heck no satan!”
Stand your ground, hold onto the promises God has given you and move forward bravely with boldness.
So, what response do you choose?
Maybe it’s a mixture of these.
I would propose you spend some time with God and give it over to Him. Then, give it a loud “Heck no satan! Not this time, Not ever.”
Don’t give up. Don’t give in.
“For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again.” Proverbs 24:16a (NIV)
Get up!
Next Steps: What’s your battle cry? When you get punched in the gut or life doesn’t go as planned, what’s the promise you stand on? If you don’t have one, dig into the bible today and come up with a life verse to stand on when the going gets tough.
Here is a battle cry you can use today as you give it over to Him…
“The Lord is my light and my salvation-whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life-of whom shall I be afraid? For in the day of trouble He will keep me safe in His dwelling; hear my voice when I call, Lord; be merciful to me and answer me. My heart says of you, “Seek His face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek. I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” –Excerpts from Psalm 27
Fighting the good fight,
Tiffany
Tiffany Jo Baker MA, CLC
Tiffany Jo Baker is a mom who has birthed seven children, but only two of them were her own. This three-time Surrogate, Speaker, Writer and Couples Life and Fertility Support Coach, continues to help women and couples birth their dreams and thrive thru infertility. If you or someone you love find themselves on a harder than expected path to parenthood, you can find hope, free resources and more to help navigate the road and relationships while trying to conceive at www.tiffanyjobaker.com.
- How to Overcome Tough Times - July 26, 2018
Thank you so much for this! We are going through this horrible dark valley. Our youngest daughter has told us that she wants to transition to be male. We’re devastated we don’t know what to do. Standing on God’s promise to get us through this. “For I know the plans that I have for you plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future.”
I am so sorry your family is going through this. I know God will be with you through it all!!
God is so good. I just read this post only 10 minutes after I sent my friend a text to pray for me. I told her I was so tired of worrying about my wayward daughter. I just wanted to give up but I knew God was telling me to “rest” and “wait” and “have faith”. I felt Him tell me that clearly. But I’m sad. I want her to come back to the Lord. My whole life feels like a fog as I am up one minute and down the next. As I try to keep my daily job going and stay upbeat for support for others and write and speak and manage my own life, my sweet husband and our non-profit. “It’s too much, Lord” I say and then my other mind says, “No it’s not. You can do it. Pick yourself up and keep going.” God reminds me in Jeremiah 29:11, a picture I have on my desk – “For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.” And again in my favorite verses – Proverbs 3:5-6. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” I can’t give up and I can’t give in. Yes, it is my ONE MILLIONTH time to turn it over but thanks to your post today, I will give it the one million and one time! Thank you for letting God use you to tell me EXACTLY what I needed at this very moment. God bless you and your ministry.
God bless you and your husband and your ministry. I know He will be there with you through all the trials that may come.
So well written, Tiffany! Psalm 27:13-14 has brought me through some really tough times.
<3