Husband Encouragement Challenge : Day 20

I've been slacking off a little bit lately in writing and in encouraging. I've been pretty exhausted and overwhelmed which has been making it hard to give 100% of me every day. I know I need to regardless of the circumstances, but sometimes I fail and become needy. :-( It's been more like wife encouragement over the last few days at our house. Today I'm aiming to get back on track, deal with some things that have been bothering me, and move on. I'll start by listing some positives about Stew over the last few days:

~Saturday night Stew bathed Emily for me so that I could get some groceries at the store.
~At the softball game on Monday Stew came over to spend time with me and Emily after his shift on the field was done.
~And then he took us out for ice cream.
~Last night Stew chose to spend time with me rather than work out because he knew I needed to talk.
~Over the last few days Stew has offered to take Emily in the morning for me so that I could shower, sleep, etc.

I think a good way to encourage Stewart this week will be to get our weekends organized. Stew enjoys organization and lists and I need to do a better job of organizing our weekends so that he has time for his "to do" list and so we have time to spend as a family. That way all our need will be met and then the work week to follow will flow more smoothly.

Now, back to the challenge. Today's challenge talks about forgiveness. I have to say that I am very thankful that my husband is forgiving. I fumble along a lot of times, let exhaustion get the best of me and he's always very forgiving and doesn't hold onto grudges. I'm so thankful that he doesn't keep a list of my faults. I, on the other hand, need to work on this. When my feelings get hurt I tend to hang on to that and sometimes have a hard time letting go. I'm finding that prayer is essential to combat bitterness because I certainly can't do it by my own strength.

My friend Mary passed this along yesterday and I found it very encouraging:

You messed up yesterday.

But you'll mess up more if you let yesterday's mistakes sabotage today's attitude.

God's mercies are new every morning. Receive them.

- by Max Lucado -

- from Every Day Deserves a Chance -

* Update: Today went very smoothly! I had an awesome day with my family and feel back on track with my challenge and household duties. I spent some time today surfing websites for some ideas and found a FANTASTIC one that provided me with SO much information that I was lacking. I got some wonderful tips on chores and organization. It really revitalized me to get a handle on some cleaning duties that I was having a hard time with. We spent the evening as a family, playing inside with the new kitten, playing outside and taking a walk around the neighborhood. I could tell that we were all relaxed and enjoying our time together, esp. Emily who was running down the street giggling the whole way. It was so heart warming and such a joy for me today!