Embracing My Journey ~ Living with passion & purpose!

The old saying, “Do we see the cup half full or half empty?” is hugely powerful when we learn to take the trash in our minds out and replace it with the blessings. We have been taught by society that beauty is on the outside no matter how many times we have ‘heard’ that it is on the inside. We are told from childhood that we are what we make of life but at the same time the world and unhappy people around us tell us that we will never amount to anything in the way that they sneer and look judgingly toward us.

There are so many mixed signals that we feel like we can’t even understand why we do the things we do and why we feel the things we feel. As children, we become what we are told we are, but when you become a youth and young adult, you have the choice. You can choose to make things harder by focusing on the negative or you can choose to make things brighter by focusing on the good in life.

We get way too caught up in material things and trying to get others to approve, that along the way we lose sight of the important things. Sometimes we even lose sight and recognition of the person looking back in the mirror at us. We may put ourselves in a bad situation or be hurt by someone in our past that causes us to make decisions that have lasting effects in our lives and every time we look in the mirror we regret it.

But today I want to encourage you that there is another way to look at things so that life’s choices and circumstances don’t burden you down. It takes work and it takes discipline in your mind. You have to choose to realize the good in your life. You were meant for a purpose, and that purpose is not to be defeated in all you do but to live with a joy and a passion that spills over onto those around you. What do you have in life that is good? Even if all you can think of is one thing, find that one thing. Change your focus from all that hasn’t worked for you and hasn’t made you feel loved and special and realize that the more you focus on the blessings that God has given you, then the good will be amplified and the bad will diminish.

Believe me it works. I came from abuse, self-mutilation, depression, etc. until it costs me custody of my oldest son. I cried for years and allowed all the bad thoughts of how I couldn’t do anything right and how I let everyone I was around down that I just didn’t even want to live anymore. What did I have left? I was homeless at one point, hungry every day, no one who really loved me to keep me warm at night and encourage me that I did matter and that I was special. I was mistreated in my divorced and falsely accused of child abused because even the courts didn’t understand my life.

It wasn’t until I learned to quit playing that poor-pitiful-me movie in my head and quit focusing on all the negatives in order to realize that I was special and I did matter. My mind had just warped my thinking and I became determined to gain my life and sanity back from the darkness it had been in.

Since my focus has changed things has came full circle. I’m remarried to a wonderful man. We have six really wonderful kids between us. My oldest son moved in with me full time fifteen years after my separation from my ex. Eighteen years later my ex called me and apologized for mistreating me and admitted that he knew I had never abused our son. I’m in ministry helping others to see the good in their life. So when scripture says in Luke 21-28 ESV, “Now when these things take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” I claim that in this situation, because now my heads clearer, my focus is straighter, and my purpose is definite.

So I encourage you to set your sights on the things that bring you joy. Replace those bad thoughts and know that you are special and made for a unique purpose. God in all His divine power made you to love and be joyful. Don’t let the world tell you any different. Straighten up and hold your precious head high for you are worth every bit of it.

*~*~*

Author Bio: Tracy Lewis, Author, Bible Teacher, & Speaker

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 31st, 2011 at 10:00 am and is filed under Caryn's writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.