How are you going?
We are half way through this year and I am wondering what your life is like right now. I know from experience that life brings us unexpected twists and turns. Some are pleasant and exciting and some are not so good. Some can appear devastating.Take a moment to reflect on these last six months and as you do recall the highlights and the lowlights.
Choose forgiveness
Recently, I heard Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton speak about her life since that fateful day when a dingo took her baby. She was unjustly imprisoned and unkindly judged by the public and misrepresented by the media. Lindy kept her faith in God throughout her ordeal and she says she is a better person today because of what she went through. Her overriding choice in life is to forgive everyone who hurt her. Lindy lives with her memories day and night. She lives with a failed marriage. She lives without her baby daughter. She lives with her adult children still struggling with what happened to them as a family. But she lives and speaks because she chooses to forgive.Choose joy
A well-known pastor’s wife wrote a book called Choose Joy out of her very own deep need to discover joy. She and her son struggled with depression. While she was writing her book, she had a dread that her son would take his life because he was actively suicidal. She knew that even if her worst nightmare came true, she wanted to pursue and experience joy. Her worst nightmare did happen! Her son took his own life. Her name is Kay Warren, wife of Rick Warren, founding pastor of Saddleback Church in California. Kay was wearing her necklace that says “Choose Joy” the day Matthew died. She wears it almost everyday to remind herself that joy is still within her reach. But joy is something she has to speak and choose deliberately.We cannot control what happens to us but we can choose how we deal with it. That thing of yours that happened may be permanent or it may be temporary. Our emotions offer us our first response so feel the pain, grieve the loss and take any action that is needed. Then make a choice to put that thing into perspective by remembering God’s goodness and blessings on you.
Become aware of God’s presence with you.
He is sovereign—in control, providing for and working out all the circumstances in the lives of those who love him and whom he has called. He is intimately involved with us. He works out his purposes through the events in our lives so that we may be conformed to the image of his Son.
How will you choose to live this next half of the year? Choose wisely today, to become a better person tomorrow.