“Even when you can’t imagine how. How you’re ever gonna find your way out. Even when you’re drowning in your doubt, just look beyond the clouds.” – Britt Nicole

Have you ever found yourself in a funk where you felt things would never get better and no matter what you tried, it seemed like nothing helped?

I have found myself feeling like this multiple times in my life. In fact, the most recent time was just last month. I felt stuck and boxed in and I was really in my head with all kinds of negative thoughts.

For those who know me, all those feelings I just described sound nothing like me. In fact, I am one of the most hopeful, optimistic people you will ever meet.

Despite my optimistic viewpoint of life, I am not exempt from getting knocked down by life nor am I immune to falling for the enemy’s lies at times.

This is why the Word encourages us to put on the full armor of God.

It doesn’t matter how rich or how poor you are. It doesn’t matter if you’re college educated, or you dropped out of school. It doesn’t matter if you grew up in a somewhat normal family or you come from chaos and dysfunction…we all will face trials and difficulties.

I now understand the quote “when disaster strikes, the time to prepare has passed.”

Unfortunately, many of us get distracted when our lives are going well, and we can often get into this place of complacency where we believe that things will always be good. But as the older people like to say, “just keep living.”

As long as you’re living, your life is going to be full of ups and downs. But the good news is just like there’s night, there’s always day; just like there’s mourning there will always be joy and just like the sun sets every day, it also rises every day.

No matter if you’re currently on a mountaintop or if you find yourself in a valley, preparation is what makes the valleys a little easier to go through.

We never know when we’ll get that call that our loved one has taken their last breath.

We can’t predict when that job may decide to lay people off.

We never expect that our spouse may betray us.

This is why difficult times can be so challenging because they usually catch us off guard, but this goes back to what I said earlier, just like you know the sun will come up every morning, you also know that it will go down every evening.

You may not know when your “hard” time is coming, but if you’re honest with yourself, you understand that it’s not a matter of “if” it will come but how have you prepared for when it comes.

I know that we all experience difficulties in our own way and what works for one person may not work for another, but I just wanted to share some practical tips that have helped me, and I believe if you find a way to apply them to your life, they will help you as well.

1. Be Proactive – At the end of 2023, God gave me a dream, and, in that dream, He showed me that moving into 2024 I was going to have to be more proactive. Now that we are in 2025, I realize that admonition wasn’t just for 2024, but for the rest of my life. I can give multiple examples of how I am currently being proactive so that I may be prepared for whatever comes my way.

One of the ways I decided to be proactive was purchasing life insurance. I know this sounds so simple and seems like something everyone would know to do but ask yourself how many times you have heard a story of someone facing a health battle or a family loses a loved one and people had to start a GoFundMe just to cover basic expenses. Most people do not like to think about death and what’s even sadder is that most people aren’t raised to see life insurance as a necessity. But I remember watching the funeral of this man and his son said the greatest gift his dad gave the family was the ability to grieve the loss of him without any financial burdens or stress of worrying how things would be paid for. That moment stuck with me.

Maybe it’s something else for you. Ask yourself what area of your life you need to take ownership in and give up the “go with the flow” attitude.

2.  Practice Gratitude – We all have heard the saying, “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.” Think back to 2020 when the whole world was forced to shut in and the freedoms that we usually take for granted were snatched away: when you wanted to visit friends and family, and you couldn’t; when you wanted to attend church, but it was shut down; and when you wanted to travel but even that had limitations.

Now fast forward to a few years later and people have gotten comfortable being separated and isolated. Now that we can visit however, we please, people are choosing to stay connected through technology. Now that we can attend church as we please, more people are choosing to do online church.

We take so much for granted and you would think that when we have certain things stripped away, that this would make us even more appreciative if we’re able to get those things back. I believe it’s a gratitude problem. We don’t actually appreciate our friends and family the way we say we do. We don’t actually appreciate the freedoms that we are blessed to have. We’re not as thankful as we claim to be for the good things in our life.

I think this is why many people find it hard to recover after losing someone close to them because it is then that they are faced with regrets because now they wish that they had of shown that person more love and appreciation when they were still living. It is then that they wished they would have forgiven that person or wished that they would have made that relationship a priority.

I believe if we live a life of gratitude realizing that we can lose everything in a moment, we will make time for the things that matter and when we find ourselves going through a difficult time, we will have amazing memories to look back on instead of a thousand regrets.

3. Stay in Community – As someone who loves my alone time and also has no problem doing just about anything by myself, I still understand I need community. It is very easy when life knocks you down, to go get under the covers and shut the rest of the world out. I get it. I’ve been there and that’s exactly what I did numerous times. I would lie in my bed for days, ringer turned off, texts ignored, and I would just wallow in my sorrows. I would throw a pity party all by myself…well not exactly by myself because the devil was always eager to pull up a chair and let me know how unfair my life was and how nobody else could possibly understand how I felt.

I may not know you personally, but I’m guessing you’ve also had these pity parties a time or two. You probably had every right to feel the way you felt. There is nothing wrong with sadness, grief, or being disappointed. We should be able to feel what we feel. The problem comes when we decide to park there and ruminate on how things will never get better.

This is why isolation can be so dangerous. It is really easy to get stuck in your own head and feelings and trick yourself into believing the lies of your enemy. He gets you to believe the lies because he uses your own voice against you or the voice of those you care about.

However, when you surround yourself with the “right” community, there are always people around to encourage and help you when it feels like you can’t help yourself. The “right” community sees things in you that you may not even see. The “right” community offers tangible help and not the platitudes of most where they’re sending “thoughts and prayers” your way. The “right” community will let you have your time to grieve, but they will also push you towards healing and moving forward.

These past few months have been extremely challenging for my family: the ones I live with and those planted all over the world. Right now, I feel like I am about to walk through what may be one of the toughest challenges of my life, but I am so thankful for a God who has prepared me for this moment.

Now is not the time for me to share the actual details, but I believe it won’t be long before I’m back to share a testimony of God’s goodness and His faithfulness. Yes, I’m facing some things I would rather not be facing, but I can rest in the fact that I don’t have to face these things alone.

Although I don’t know what you are currently going through or what’s up ahead for you, I do know as dark as things may seem, the sun is rising and that’s hope you can hang unto.