What has been your best day ever? I scrolled through my Facebook feed and glimpsed at a friend’s post who wrote “I had the best day ever!” It was about her birthday and in response to her birthday wishes from friends. Immediately, I knew in my heart, I wanted to have the best day ever today, even if it wasn’t my birthday.

I told my husband last night that right now I am probably in the most stressful season of my life, on many levels. I’m tense all the time, trying to sell this house, building a new house, anticipating a new work schedule, hitting a wall with some manuscripts, and many other stresses that I need not mention here. And I’m so tired of this Covid mess, as the rest of the world is. I haven’t been sleeping well at night, which adds to my emotional stress. Each item isn’t too stressful by itself. In fact, many are good, but for me, packing them all in one season has been a bit overwhelming.

I know others are experiencing similar stress, if not worse. I know people are losing jobs, suffering dwindling finances, closing their businesses, losing houses, living on streets, and stresses I can’t even fathom. Can these people have best-days-ever, now?

I wondered what it might look like to have the best day ever amid stress, like today! Is that even possible? Most of my best-days-ever have been on restful vacations, births of my children, winning awards, good things coming my way, holidays with family.

A best-day-ever seems to be chocked full of peace, joy, and love. I began begging Jesus to show me how this could happen today. I mean, I’ve been trusting Him, but knowing that His ways aren’t necessarily my ways, I have a fear of the unknown. That, I discovered, is mostly the root of my stress– the unknown. Exactly how might Jesus work all this out? Will I like it? Is it what I hoped? Will it be painful?

I dug for scriptures on how to experience joy and peace. They aren’t hard to find. The Psalms are full of them, thank you, David. I wrote them down. I tried to etch them into my brain, to imprint His promises in my heart. I read them and re-read them. I desperately wanted this. I want to feel Jesus’ love, peace, and joy every day. Why do I keep stressing?

Then I decided to stop my whining, stop my bellyaching about it, and to shut up. I sat there and asked Jesus to speak to me and show me how I could have the best day ever, today, with Him. I imagined Him reminding me of His promises, that He is on my side, that He has not forgotten about me. He is with me every moment of every day. Nothing happening comes as a surprise to Him. He loves me. I imagined Him pouring His peace into me, His joy into me. I focused on Him telling me that nothing is too hard for Him. In fact, all this is quite easy for Him. I imagined Him filling me with patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. I imagined Him telling me He was growing these in me, that victory was mine, blessings and prosperity were mine. I imagined His calm demeanor, His joy-filled eyes, His compassion, His love for me, then pouring Himself into me.

I sat there and soaked it all in. Whether He really did all that or I imagined it, remains unknown. But it felt good. It felt cleansing. It’s what I needed. So, here I am now. I thought I’d share that with you, because I know others may be experiencing stress too. So, I wanted you to know, you aren’t alone. I am right there with you in this stress-filled world. And Jesus is right there with you, too.

I can’t tell you yet, that I’ve had the best day ever, but I can tell you that I’m believing I will, and the next day too. I hope you do, too. Can every day be the best day ever?

Here’s a portion of Psalm 16 that brought comfort for me this morning.

You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Anybody else feeling stressed, out there? What would your best-days-ever look like? How are you getting through these stress-filled days? Please share with me, below.