It's All About Perspective!

You cant live a positive life with a negative mind. Say what?  You cannot live a positive life with a negative mind.  Nope.  You cannot.  That would be like mixing oil and water....hot sauce and ice cream... peanut butter and dill pickles with syrup on pancakes.  Ok wait.  That tastes delightful.  Scratch that one. 

 I once heard it put this way.... your mind is a battlefield and it is there that the struggle is born.  Where your mind goes.... your thoughts and body will follow.   This quote from Lao Tse sums it up:  “Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habit. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”

It is really easy when things are going swell to be positive.  When the bills are paid and the boss is happy --- its a beautiful day.  When your honey brings you flowers and the kids sing your praises....when no one is sick, the house didn't catch fire, the laundry room didn't flood.  You get a raise.... you found a twenty dollar bill, someone buys you lunch.  Wooo hoooo! Life. Is. Good!  You are smiling and the world smiles with you

But how about when life is not all sunshine and roses?  How about those real incidents that test your resolve.... the fender bender, being late for work, a boss that you cannot please, a grumpy spouse, unappreciative kids, things beyond your control, bill collectors, spilt coffee, caring for sick parents, finding out someone you trusted lied to you.... losing your purse and quite possibly your mind.  Those days it is harder to be a positive thinker and so the battle ensues.

How do you survive the negative things in life without becoming negative?   I love the following truths from scripture about this battle ...

Proverbs 23:7 says,  "As a person thinks in his/her heart...so is he/she."
Colossians 3:2 says "Set your mind (your thoughts) on things above...."

Scripture lines up with what Lao Tse said.  When life lobs a ball at me and hits me it creates a response within me and with it comes a thought.  Positive or negative, those thoughts will become words.  And I choose the direction in the midst of the arm wrestle.  My words will become actions and the actions will be stronger than the words spoken because as I entertain them they grow more and more powerful.  The choice is ours.  Will there be power in the upswing...or will the power of negative thoughts drag us down?

Each of us has the option to see our lives and our day as the glass half full or half empty and it all depends upon PERSPECTIVE.  I believe that part of the battle is about evil getting us to see life incorrectly as though we have blinders on to the truth.  Hence, we are told we have two options.... a life half full or a life half empty.  But in reality I say that there is a third option... a life whose cup runneth over! 

There is ALWAYS something to praise God for in every day.  Gods word directs us to "rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS, again I say rejoice!"  Count those blessings woman!  Something else that helps me is to look for God in everything. 

When my father battled cancer for 2 1/2 years he taught me a valuable lesson.  We had been going through a terrible drought financially, emotionally and physically for several years.  My dad, however, was battling for his very life!  He was in the midst of treatments that were supposed to destroy the cancer cells but they tore his body down robbing him of strength, vigor and life.  The pain he experienced was tortuous. 

Almost daily I would call Pop and ask him, "How are you today dad?"  Invariably he would have a positive thing to say.... "Oh, not too bad.  I know it could be worse.  I know that somebody, somewhere has it worse than me."  This remained his mantra all throughout the rest of his life.  He had every right to be upset and negative at the hand life played him.  But he chose differently.  His attitude choice I believe elongated his expected life from six months to 2 and a half years!   That attitude of upward thinking struck a chord in me and realigned my vision and it has not changed.

Yes, we've experienced financial devastation and yes we lost our first house to foreclosure because of Wayne's injury....but we've never had a tornado come and wipe our life away as though it had never been there.

Yes my husband was hurt in the line of duty as a police officer.  Yes, he has lost many physical abilities in the course of several years worth of operations and recoveries, but our family has not had to bury an officer killed in the line of duty.

 Yes, we've felt the sting of injustice and in spite of my husband's documented injury on the job we've had to fight for every bit of compensation he's been given.  It is so unfair and unjust the money spent in this legal battle.  But for every unjust strike against us as we battle forward in the courts for what is rightfully due my husband there are a hundred experiences of the faithfulness of God and his provision!

Yes we've been homeless for three months, gotten food stamps, gone and stood in line at food banks.  But we have countless stories of how miraculously food and money arrived "from nowhere" to sustain us.

You may wonder, what could be so positive about all these negative things?  Here  it is ...I love Isaiah 61 which says... 

"The spirit of the sovereign lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed  me to preach good news to the poor (See...we have been poor.  Who better to understand the needs and pain of the poor?) 

-- He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted (We have been brokenhearted)
-- to proclaim freedom for the captives and to release from darkness for the prisoners (we understand what it is to be held captive by something)
--  to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion, (we, too, have grieved and mourned!) 
--to bestow upon them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." (We have experienced a powerful God who can and will take the ruins of a life and turn it into something beautiful and meaningful again.) 

 You see, we know what it is to be without and so we give.  We know what it is to grieve, and so we comfort.  We know what it is to be hungry, so we feed others.  We know what it feels like to live a broken life and rise again....so we encourage!  it is literally giving legs to Gods word and promise which states -- You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives (Genesis 50:20 NIV).  The fight that injured Wayne was intended to destroy him.  however, God has used it over and over again to save his life, to teach him and to move us where he wanted us in keeping with his plan for our lives.  That is how we find God in the midst of life.  I know you can too.

I challenge you to get the big magnifying glass out and inspect your life.  Ask God to help you look more closely at the negative balls that are lobbed at you and dare to find the good God will bring from them.  Next, when you are tempted to fire off at the mouth and curse the balls thrown at you.... tick off the things you are thankful for. I am certain you will find a list of things to be thankful for.  Read the newspaper.  Pull up your online news and start counting your blessings. 

My prayer for you is that next time life throws balls at you like an out of control pitcher...you will tick off the positive and like ice cubes being dropped into a glass of iced tea soon and very soon your cup will overflow.
 

The Seedlings of Faith

I did not always pursue Jesus.  There was a time in my life when I did not even KNOW of him.
I look back now on my life and I am OVERWHELMED with awe at HIS pursuit of ME!

Though my parents had both been to church in their youth, when they were having their family (I am the oldest) they did not belong to a church or take me to church. 

The first person who took me to church was my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Edith Phillips.  Out of all the children in her class, God led her to me.  She asked me if I'd like to go to church with her and I said yes.  My parents said yes.  Every Sunday morning she was faithful to come by my house and pick me up and take me to church with her. 

We attended the First Missionary Baptist church on Hillside Road.  She took me to Sunday school where I can remember sitting with other children and learning about Jesus and God.  I remember the pages I was given; the stories that were told and I began to understand that there was a God who loved me and I was his little girl.

All school year I went with Mrs. Phillips.  I sat in big church next to her and listened to the singing and the preaching.  I remember looking at the wood board on the side of the wall that had all the numbers listed of those in attendance.  I never realized how much a part of my life church and learning of who I was to God would become.

That school year of 1966-67 ended and we all broke for summer.  I did not attend church with Mrs. Phillips.  In early September we walked down to Bidwell Elementary and went to the windows of all the first grade classrooms to find my name.  Lo and behold we were pleased to find that Mrs. Edith Phillips had become a first grade teacher and I - Dori Albright - was at the top of her class roster!

As you may have guessed, I was asked again by my teacher if I'd like to go to church with her again.  And again I did - for the whole year.  I wish I could say that she then became my second grade teacher, but she did not.  However, the seeds that had been planted within my heart were watered and protected.  All because of Mrs. Edith Phillips.

A few years later in my fifth and sixth grade years, a little girl named Susie Turner took me to the same church with her off and on and again I learned more about the love of Jesus and God.  During those visits my seedlings of knowledge were watered, weeded and tended to as the little seedlings  grew.

I remember that during my difficult adolescence I believed in God.  I knew he was there and as my journals attest, I was always mindful of him and cried out to him.  I also prayed to him continuously.

I did not come to know the Lord on my own until I was 19 years old.  My siblings had become believers and pursued me vigorously.  That time of my life was a sad one as I'd lost my grandparents and life felt somehow pointless.  That feeling had me looking for God.  In the spring of 1980 I made a deal with my sib's....I'll go one time but you will promise to leave me alone after that.  They agreed. 

On the chosen morning both of them were sick and with a boldness that was not normal I decided "lets get this over with!".  So I went alone.  I remember sitting in the back pew in between strangers.  The pastor was hipper than I remembered any pastor being allowed to be.  He had longer hair and was wearing a 3 piece yellow suit!  COOL! 

I loved the worship.  I listened intently to the sermon.  As the service was closing an electric feeling silence fell upon the sanctuary that was new for me.  Everyone seemed eager and anxious.  Suddenly a man began to speak in a foreign language.  Something deep within me moved and responded and I did not understand it at all.  When his voice trailed off the room was filled with a pregnant silence.  Another man's voice raised and interpreted what the message of tongues had been.  I do not remember the full message but this much I have never forgotten..... "to the one who has been looking for me and searching.  I am he and I can be found...."  My heart was doing flip flops and I knew he was talking about me!  I knew and God knew I had been searching for him in a way I did not know at the time.  That morning as I wept, I gave my heart to him and life changed forever.

As I sit here today, thirty plus years after this experience I am aware of those towering oaks of faith in my heart.  I am mindful of their stature.  I am mindful of the fruit they bear.  I am mindful of the storms they have survived and how deep the roots are because of the storms.  But you know what I am most mindful of today?  The precious one who planted the seeds in the first place.  Mrs. Edith Phillips.

Today it would be impossible for a teacher to invite a student to go to church with her.  My how times have changed.  And this question bears asking.... if teachers can no longer invite little one's to go and hear about how Jesus loves them who can?  Who will plant the seeds?

We live in a world today filled with natural disasters, atrocities and terror we never dealt with when I was a child in the 1960's.  I never remember feeling frightened for my life or hopeless.  But today is a different world we live in.  So much has changed, but one thing has stayed the same.  Jesus.  He is the hope for the hopeless.  He bestows value upon those who will hear.  He is the anchor. 

Mrs. Phillips was a grandmother.  She had her own children and grandchildren and I am sure nieces and nephews too.  But there was room for one more.  She saw the value in planting seeds in the heart of a little girl.  She has been long gone but her gift remains inside of me.  Because of her planting.... the oaks that have grown within me have given life to others.  Those oaks of faith have given shelter to me and my own family.   It's fitting that despite having my own children and nieces and nephews I've always found room "for one more".  My prayer is that I will always have room for just one more' and will never lose the understanding of the importance of planting seeds in those whose hearts are ready. 

So I challenge you.  Is there room for one more under the shade of the big oak?  Can you spare the time to plant, weed and water a seedling in the heart of another?  Go ahead...go and get your hands dirty.  Go ahead.  Go dig in the dirt and plant the seeds that keep on giving unto eternity.