Continue in Prayer

Have you ever woken up in a gloomy mood? I got up early again because I needed to make Travis' lunch, having forgot he was leaving at 5:15 am to get to his men's meeting in Gilbert. The gloom descends when he leaves for the day, but usually its a high-in-the-sky whispy cloud.

I have much to be grateful for. A friend loaned me her extra Ford Expedition yesterday, Connor came and cleaned up the yard with me, and another friend brought me a bougainvillea yesterday when she came and visited. Not to mention that I found a very cool spray paint for my two iron chairs-- and the best part was that it took 20 minutes to prime and paint it into a new 'hammered copper' finish.
But there are times when even my gross productivity doesn't lift my spirits. The gloom comes from my unbelieving heart and then I feel further disheartened. Colossians 3 says about all the work I have done:

"Whatever you do, work heartily as to the Lord and not unto men, for you know you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving."

Elizabeth Elliot comments in her book Secure in the Everlasting Arms :

All work, if offered to Him, is transformed. It is not secular but sacred, sanctified in the glad offering...Is there not a very important lesson for all of us here? In the very place where God has put us, whatever its limitations, whatever kind of work it may be, we may indeed serve the Lord Christ.

Her prayer from St. Francis de Sales is beautiful and so filled with peaceful grace:

Go in all simplicity; do not be anxious to win a quiet mind, and it will be all the quieter. Do not examine so closely into the progress of your soul. Do not crave so much to be perfect, but let you spiritual life be formed by your duties, and by the actions which are called forth by circumstances. Do not take overmuch thought for tommorrow. God, who has led you safely on so far, will lead you on to the end. Be altogether at rest in the loving holy confidence which you ought to have in His heavenly Providence.

What happy Providence has led me to the things I have, the things I need and the faith it calls upon for Daily Bread. Col. 4:2 says to "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving."