My girls love to draw pictures and write in the dew on my car in the mornings as we wait for their bus to arrive. This fall, as I was on my way to work one particular morning, I looked out my back window of my car and saw that one of my daughters had drawn a smiley face in the dew before getting on the bus. I loved this sweet little reminder that she left for me. As I began driving down the road the dew quickly ran off and, in an instant, the smiley face was gone. In my hurry to make the journey, the artwork had vanished with no trace that it had even been there. As I continued my way to work, this visual stuck with me. I was reminded of how often this can mirror some of my responses to life and the day to day things that come up. One minute things are going well, and I am “happy.” The next minute, life speeds up, and circumstances can wipe away those happy feelings like they had never existed before and in its place disappointment and frustration remain.

Psalm 42:5 speaks to some of those feelings that I have. It says: “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

This verse demonstrates the struggles that the Psalmist also has. Circumstances bring hard questions and feelings that aren’t always going to be happy. But, the second part of the verse begins, “for I will yet praise him…” Just like the psalmist identified, our circumstances do not need to dictate whether we praise or not. In fact, we praise in light of the troubles that we have in life. There will be an end to our troubles, we know that for those who are in Christ, “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17).

The smiles and happy moments in life may come and go quickly, just like the picture on my car that my daughter drew. We may feel downcast and disturbed, but we can put our hope in God, not our feelings. Praising God can happen in the midst of the vanishing happy feelings and tough things. “Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30: 5b).