Unexpected things happen… unfortunate things happen… bad things happen… sad things happen… etc. We have a choice in how we respond to things. I can easily be upset about a situation OR I can choose to not allow it to affect me to the point where I blow up and be angry or break down and cry. We have to practice self control and learn to harness our emotions and CHOOSE to be happy and OK. Though easier said than done, trust me, I know… but I refuse to allow myself the excuse of saying, “well this is just the way I am.. I get mad/emotional”… I’m better than that. I want to learn how to CHOOSE joy, love and peace over anger, frustration or even sadness and bitterness.. any day 🙂 I’d rather find a solution if I can, than be angry and upset.. when that doesn’t help a matter. I’ve had several instances where I found myself being frustrated or upset and in that moment I had to tell myself to calm down, not react and remind myself that it wasn’t a big deal and then ask myself if it was really worth getting upset over. I had to choose joy and peace in that moment. Various different situations can happen where we WANT to choose peace, love, joy etc… but it doesn’t necessarily work out that way, doesn’t make us a bad person… just means we still got some work to do in ourselves.
One of my friends asked me, “do you think that God allows us to feel sadness and anger for a reason? I definitely agree we choose how we respond to situations, but what if some situations require sadness in order to heal?”Very good question. I think God allows us to feel any emotion. It’s our choice. Recent events in my life have caused me to feel very sad this past month… but… I’m not a sad person by nature. I’m joyful. It’s our choice what we allow to feel. I’m choosing NOT be sad over a certain situation because I don’t want to be. I think everyone heals differently… some can heal with sadness. some can’t. I myself, refuse to stay sad over what happened, I refuse to be bitter and I refuse to be angry… I’m choosing joy, being sad, in my situation, doesn’t fix the matter at all. Benefits no-one. So I’m thinking positive, knowing that my life is in Gods hands, trusting Him fully with what is next now that this certain chapter in my life is over. He gives us a choice, ultimately its our choice in the end how we handle it, how we heal, how we grow etc. His role is when we allow Him to come and pour out His love as we surrender things to Him that we do not want to hold on to.
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”- Pslam 147:3
John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples…”
The bible also say’s to love one another Deeply!
1 Peter 4:8 “Love all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”…
In my current situation.. I’m choosing joy and love, because that somehow brings peace to my heart… there are moments where I feel sad and even angry/rejected, but I “take my thoughts captive”… because, for me, I don’t heal staying sad.. or confused.. or hurt. I just don’t. For me, I heal better when I release negative emotion and give it to God to take, I surrender what I don’t want and in return get peace. I want to love…even when I feel I’ve been hurt by someone, I still want the capacity to love them no matter what.
But again, we all heal different. not everyone is the same.. we all require something different 🙂
I will still cry sometimes… and I hate that! I feel like if I think too much about it… I’m only picking a scab. So it’s a constant surrender to God, a constant trusting, and a constant saying to Him “pour out your love and peace”… 🙂 for me, it’s just remembering that God is my source of joy and love… and He has no limit. I can ask for it as much as I want.. He won’t ever say “I gave you enough love yesterday” ..haha. We can come to Him at any time.. He isn’t annoyed or bothered by our requests.. He see’s our heart, sees our need.. and GLADLY provides what we need… because that’s what LOVE does. ♥ Love will see the need and happily meet the need.. it will never leave you empty. God is love. And His love is perfect.
Hope this spoke to some of you. I know I’m not the only one who needs to learn how to choose joy.
Blessings and Increase!
-MarthaInez
Prayer:
God, help those of us who need to learn how to choose to be happy, calm, joyful etc in situations that we feel take that away from us.. we want to stay grounded in you.. trusting you that everything will be ok. Any thoughts that take us to a place where we feel anger or bitterness towards someone, bring us back to your heart and the place where we can love them. We want your love to overflow in our lives Papa God. In Jesus name, amen. ♥
• M A R T H A • I N E Z • 