That phrase has been showing up everywhere for me lately. Our pastor talked about it and how God helps us get up again. My teacher, Andrea, just gave us an article she wrote about getting back up again. At Bible Study last night we talked about Job being lifted up by God. My grandma used to say, “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”. It seems like we all need to get up at some point in our lives. I got to thinking about it a lot since it felt like God REALLY wanted me to ponder this. I’ve stepped back and rolled it around in my brain for awhile and my take on it is this.

We all fall down and our choice is to get up, or lay there. But there are times we can’t get up on our own. For instance, yesterday after morning chores I was exhausted. I had spent 9 hours the day before in the barn giving lessons and getting prepared for the cold snap. When I got in from the barn I was exhausted both mentally and physically. Wednesday morning I woke up with red rimmed eyes, a headache and depressed that I had to do it all again. I felt alone, dark, and down to the point I was nauseous and just wanted to go back to bed which I did as soon as I got back into the house from morning chores. It went from bad to worse. I tried praying, asking God why? And please pull me up out of the blackness. I hate to tell you but He didn’t immediately step in and lift me up into a shaft of bright light. I felt myself sinking deeper. I started to feel like a worthless lump of coal, good for nothing, can’t take care of anything right. I should still be in the barn taking care of things. I have horses to help, a chicken coop that needs revamping and etc. As I laid there I heard my cell phone ring, I ignored it. I heard texts coming through. I ignored them and kept telling myself how lazy I was and how useless. My alarm went off and nap time was over. I had an hour to get the house cleaned for bible study and I still had to give 3 hours of lessons in the barn. I dragged myself out of bed asking God to help me again. I had to put on a brave smiling face. People would be here that I had to help and horses that needed me to be there for them. Then out of the blue my phone rang in my hand. It was my sister, Chauna! She was FaceTiming me. I answer and there, right in front of me, is sweet Olivia’s face! Chauna and Olivia called me and we chatted. I pulled up a silly song on Alexa for Olivia to sing to. My heart got lighter, I started smiling and I felt peace wash over me as I lifted up. I saw the sun shining, felt my dogs nose under my hand and came back into the world of light. God did help, but I had to wait for his timing. I ended up really enjoying lessons that night after she called me. We had laughter, sunshine, and the sweet acceptance and unwinding from a horse that was worried before his lesson. During Bible Study my house was filled with women who all have had struggles, got knocked down, some of us are still down, others are standing up again. But we support each other in our journeys and everyone left with hugs and smiles.

As I pondered all this I realized yes, we all fall, and yes, we all should get up again. I got to thinking even more and realized that we don’t even know when we may be lifting someone up. I bet Chauna didn’t know she did that for me and that she saved my day. So, when you get that nudge that you should call someone, to smile at someone, or stop and ask them how they are doing. Go ahead, follow that feel! Once a small light appears, the darkness gets chased away and the light gets passed on to another. It’s pretty cool that when I got knocked down I got up again because my sister made that phone call, and a little 3 year old passed some of her light on to me.