MONDAY MOANING 1

Session 1

MONDAY MOANING Session 1

What I’ve got they used to call the blues
Nothin’ is really wrong
Feeling like I don’t belong
Walking around
Some kind of lonely clown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down

—Rainy Days and Mondays by The Carpenters

Welcome to Monday Moaning. Monday Moaning is my intent to share a brief thought along with a word of encouragement from the #1 Textbook as we begin a new week in our earthly timeline.

Some of you might be looking forward with excited anticipation to the week ahead. Others could be dreading it like the plague. For some, it marks a new beginning. For some, it signals a return to the same old routine.

Whether you are up with high hopes or dragging around in low despair, my goal for Monday Moaning is to spend a few minutes to regroup and refocus on the most important thing in the week ahead, as well as in all of life.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength…and love others as yourself.

Love them the way the Lord loves you. Love first and Love Most.

Sounds good on Sunday. Looks rough on Monday.

There are times my Monday Moaning feels much like an episode I encountered at a restaurant on the first day of the week. I entertained my staff friends with getting some soft serve ice cream for me and enough to share with Feed the Children.

My post lunch dessert was to take advantage of the free ice cream. Take a cone. Pull down on the lever and fill up your cone with vanilla or chocolate soft serve. Push the lever back into place to stop the process.

It is so simple, even children do this unsupervised. I filled my cone with the swirling ice cream until I had the perfect size and shape. I pushed the serving lever back into place. The machine did not stop. Ice cream continued to flow out.

I stayed calm as I continued to rotate my cone with the steady flow of additional ice cream. It grew larger and top-heavy. I kept punching the lever to stop.

By this time, my friends noticed the dilemma. They chose to laugh and point instead of help.

By now, the soft serve was dripping over my hands. I asked for assistance. Instead, my dilemma worsened. The floor became an ice cream boat. We just needed some bananas.

Finally, an employee thought to unplug the serving machine. I stood there with a pathetic, overfilled cone while my hand and arm dripped with ice cream.

A little girl standing in line began to cry as she complained to her mom. “He used up all the ice cream.”

I made a mess, broke a kid’s heart, and became an ice cream joke to my associates.

Do you know how embarrassing it is to anticipate staff friends asking if you would like for them to make you an ice cream cone? Just skip restaurants with that goodwill feature.

Sometimes, my Monday Moaning looks like that ice cream incident. Too much to handle. Too messy a situation. Too depressing to anticipate. Too embarrassing to repeat. Too many things not working correctly.

Just not sure if I want to get back in the arena.

Fear and worry can land knockout punches early in the week. Despair and dark thoughts can tie you to the bed or cause you to mope into the week ahead.

Here is my go-to verse for Monday Moaning.

I would have despaired unless I certainly believed that I would still see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage. The Lord is on His way to help you. –Psalm 27:13-14

Hang in there, dear friend. It’s only Monday!

Look around you. This is a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue,

and clouds of white
The bright blessed days,

dark sacred nights
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

Yes, I think to myself
What a wonderful world

–Louis Armstrong, Songwriters: George David Weiss