The High When You're Low: Inspirational Quotes for a Bad Day

       You've put in at least 53 incorrect orders and the nurse and the pharmacy express their anger with you on more than one occasion, there's a million notes you have to finish AFTER ten other tasks you have to complete because you can't seem to move fast enough throughout the day, your check out on half your patients were sub-par at sign out and now the on-coming team hates you, you keep getting pimped by your attending and every, "I don't know, I'll look it up," is accompanied with a side eye and a crude remark.  

         You're having a bad day.  And some how, you're supposed to find the strength to suppress those tears/anger until you get home, to study for several more hours.  But now you can't study.  Because like everyone else in medicine, you have a Type A personality, and instead of focusing, you now are thinking about how you should quit medicine because you are clearly not fit for it.  

         Stop...it.  We have all been there, me on more than one occasion.  Luckily, your ability to do better does not rest in your mistakes.  Your ability to learn more does not lie in the hands of that attending who continues to degrade your intelligence and self-esteem.  Thank the good Lord that your ability to rise above the negativity does not stand with that nurse who continues to hold a mean spirit with you, or with that co-resident who continues to question your knowledge and efficiency as a provider.  All these capabilities rest with God, and no one beneath Him.  

         Today, we are going to focus on just that: putting your faith in the ability to be better in God, and not those who choose to knock you down.  Below are some inspirational quotes focused in this topic that pull me out of the darkness every time, ready to get back into our forever demanding, stressful, and critical world, once more.  Hope this helps!

1. Psalm 146: 3-5

3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.

4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God

2. "My Hope is Built on Nothing Less"
by Edward Mote, 1797-1874

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

His oath, His covenant, and blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When every earthly prop gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found,
Clothed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Hymn #370
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: 1 Timothy 1:1

3. The Story of Job

         This story is the story that I identify the most with in the Bible.  As a quick synopsis, Satan asserts that the only reason Job, one of the most faithful servants of God, is only faithful to God is because God has never troubled him.  God grants Satan the power to take from Job, only not his life.  Satan takes Job's children, his flock, his health.  Job begins to question God, and his some of his friends propose that Job must have done something wrong to cause his strife.  God interjects, and reinforces to Job, His unlimited power and grace.  This always signifies to me, that if I had a bad day, it is not a question of, "what did I do to deserve this," but a matter of me trying as hard as I can to convince myself that God is carrying me through one of Satan's attempts to break my faith in God.  

          For the full story, click here.  

          Remember, your power to be better does not lie in the hands of someone else.  Don't put your faith to be better in the hands of other men; when you do, you become a slave to other's thoughts of you, which don't define you, and which may not even be real.  Don't put your faith to be better in the hands of other men to the point where you feel defeated because of a few mistakes, where you feel you look stupid because of a few wrong questions, where you feel everyone thinks you are "stupid" because you didn't know every bit of information on a patient at checkout.  Put your faith in God, to know that despite your shortcomings, despite the side eyes, despite the degrading comments, you can be better! If you have any inspirational quotes/stories, please share them below! Let's keep pushing our fellow brothers and sisters! Love you all, and happy healing!

***Any images used may or may not be solely my own.  Any borrowed images have been cited as not my own, and no plagiarism was intended.***