When Life Stinks

It's really easy to get in a rut. To carry yesterday's stuff into the morning hours of today and let junk that should've had a limited shelf-life become a permanent resident of our thoughts. We all know about bitterness if we've dealt with someone who always ends up talking about the thing that hurt them; even if it was many years ago.
Satan can torment us with yesterday's pain because he attacks us with condemning thoughts as though we could somehow change the past. It's a perfect torture, regret with no fix. Of course, in Christ we are offered the simple exchange of our pain for his blood. We accept it and then forget to use it, like a costly perfume we reserve for special occasions only to find it has lost its scent from sitting unused for so long. Please, don't quibble about the things I've done vs. those done to me in terms of hurt and relief. The exit ramp runs the same way, toward Jesus. We will trust him with our eternities, just not our todays. And the perfume sits in the medicine cabinet benefiting no one but the Ben Gay one shelf over.
I have decided to just knock it off. Stop thinking about the crap that weighs on my mind. If I can't stop thinking about it right now, I can certainly stop talking about it. P.S. if you stop talking about it you will by default, stop thinking about it. And if you stop talking and thinking about it you will by default, stop dreaming about it.
Of course, if you feed a rabid dog, it will hang around for more. Your choice.
For years, the Mr. has given me Organza perfume for Christmas. It's a luxury I have, in lean years, told him to pass on. But he has always come through, even if the bottle was tiny. I would wear the perfume only on special days and Sundays to save it. When I started working I started using it on the weekends figuring if I ran out before Christmas, I could afford more. Lately I've been wearing it here and there through the week. And then you know what happened? I ran out. Being that Organza is pricey and Christmas is a few months away, I did the sensible thing and went to Bath & Body Works to buy a cheapy perfume to hold me over. Of course, because it's cheap, the scent does not last so I bought shower gel and lotion in the same scent. And spent the same thing one bottle of Organza would cost. And the scent disappears before I get to work in the morning. So silly.
The comfort of Christ will not run out, the sweet scent of surrender will surround you every day if only you would accept it in exchange for the pressures of life. Don't let that gift sit on the shelf until you forget how good it makes you feel. Enjoy the fullness of your sonship or daughtership.
When you get up in the morning, ask for God to cover yesterday's mistakes and minimize the damage. Ask for wisdom to manage today better and learn the lessons that go with it. Give the people who bring hurt to your doorstep over to Christ and pray for their peace so that their blessings will cover you by association.
Use the good perfume. It makes the bad days nicer.

Lamentations 3:22-24 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."