We have all experienced that feeling of living life on our own. So many things piling up around us that we feel like we are coming to a breaking point. However, I want to remind you that you are not alone.

He is there for you ALL the time. Now, you might say that you disagree because you don’t have the answers you want. Yet, God is still there even when you don’t get what you want.

Sounds all too familiar when raising kids, right? We tell them no they can’t do something or have something, and they whine, walk away mad, wishing they had a different parent.

We can kind of be like that with God. But I want to encourage you today:

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” ~ Psalm 46:1

The K.I.S.S. ~ God is your refuge!

By now, you’ve probably heard about my diagnosis of double pneumonia after the first of the new year. It was not good, mainly because I had no energy. And for a woman who is always on the go, that was a kick in the pants. I get tired or exhausted because of what I do, but not because of an illness.

So unfair. Yet that was just the beginning.

In February, we had a cold spell that took our temperatures down to 10 degrees with a wind chill at times below zero. If you’re in the south, that is not the temperature you want. Plus, stuff happens when it freezes.

Well, you know all about the forced renovations inside. But I get a call while at a conference that we are having troubles with the pool. Bubbles are happening outside. I am a day from arriving home, and all I can do is watch a video and see what’s going on. I call my pool man, and he says, “You’ve got a leak!”

Can I just say I have PTSD from water?!?

We had the crew come out and emergently winterize our pool to protect any of the working lines. There was no guarantee what was wrong, but something was WRONG!!

After arriving home, we had to keep the ice from getting too thick to keep the water lines open and free from a freeze. That required us to stick the ice on the top of the pool and keep it more in chunks rather than an ice skating rink.

One day, I was working on the ice and the pool, and a struck the ice with a brief pause…. And then all of sudden I had an eighth of a milli-second to decide whether or not I was going with the fall, or would fight the fall in mid-air.

YES!!! I fell into the pool with ice about 2 inches thick.

God is our refuge!!

The short story is I’m alive to talk about it. The long story that early afternoon was I came close to not making it.

God is our refuge!!

In the moments of the water and ice hitting my body, and me being pulled under the ice was a little anerving. In a brief moment, I knew I had to get out of the pool or my son would walk down the stairs and find his mom floating dead in the pool.

All I could do was constantly tell myself to get above the water, keep your head above the water. As I climbed the iceburgs of Alaska in the backyard of my Tennessee swimming pool, I prayed to God to get me out. With fingernails clawing the slabs of ice, my heavy sweater wrapped around my face strangling my neck as it caught the edges of the ice. The fight was real, but God was by refuge.

Somehow, I was able to pull myself over two huge slabs of ice that were about as tall as me (5 feet). Finally, I got to the shallow sunning ledge and caught my breath. Making sure I wasn’t dizzy and going to pass out, I continued the climb.

The climb of life is real, and so is God!!

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” ~ Psalm 46:1

“Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!“