The other day my family and I sat around the table after dinner like we normally do, talking about our week, our month, all of the things that we’re thankful for, all of the things that we’re believing for and more.
“So, what do you think that God has been teaching you over the last few months, what good has come from all of this?” Mum said as she turned to me. She was referring to an experience that I had just had over the last three months while being placed in a different environment than I was normally used to. Now that it was over, I was recalibrating with the family.
I firmly believe that if one just looks, one will be able to see the hand of God in everything. So I did. And I found it.
Let me just say that finding the positive in other people, as well as in my own life and experiences, hasn’t come naturally at all.
Some people are naturally positive, and while I generally am, I also have always kind of swayed to the negative side of things – easily falling into depression, always finding the black in the white painting and so on. Getting out of that has been a choice that I’ve had to make over and over again since a little girl:
I will choose joy, I will choose joy, and I will choose joy.
Because it’s been something that I’ve been working on for so many years, I now rarely find myself slipping into a dark hole, and if I feel that there is a temptation to, then I force myself to worship God until I am out of it – until I feel peace.
I’ve had to take up the challenge to “adjust” by renewing my mindset (Matthew 9:17); “adjusting forward by taking small steps to complete a 1000 foot journey.”
The trick however, is knowing where to adjust. A lot of the time, we have all of the right ingredients to be great, but the wrong priorities.
Let me break it down: God has put inside us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3) – everything we need to prosper at the life we live, but if we prioritize wrong, for example, focusing on ourselves instead of him, then we are very easily left thinking that life is a lot harder and more depressing than it needs to be.
Happiness, and asking God to help you see the bigger picture doesn’t always come naturally. As with anything – a little bit, regularly done, goes a long way.
Isaiah 28:10 (THE VOICE)
“Who is left for God to instruct in knowledge? Who will listen and understand His message? Maybe those infants just weaned off of milk, those innocents just taken from the breast? For here is how it goes: Command after command, command on top of command. Rule after rule. Rule on top of rule. A little here, a little there….”
If we’re willing, he’s ready to instruct us, and help us to see the bigger picture… little by little… a little here, a little there…
“My mother says, “Your whole life’s in the hand of God.” – Jon Bellion, Hands of God
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