Bethiepoo03

choosing life

There is a quote from a man by the name of Zig Ziglar and
it goes like this "you can not tailor-make situation in
life, but you can tailor-make the attitudes which fit those
situations".
that has been a quote that I have had as the signature for
all of my outgoing e-mails.
My father has always told me that I choose the way that I
respond to things in life--these are lessons that I have
always been taught in life, but it was always head
knowledge.

I had never really absorbed what that truly meant until
this week. There have been certain situations which have
been hard for me, recently. It's quite basic - there is
one particular person at work who just GRATES ON MY
NERVES!!! One day I found myself in my room practically in
tears because I was in such a bad mood and I was so
frustrated with things. i had a CD on with praise and
worship music and a song came on "Nail pierced hands,
wounded side, this is love, this is love, Holy heart,
sacrifice, this is love, this is love. I bow down to the
Holy one, I bow down to the Lamb. I bow down to the worthy
one, I bow down to the lamb..."
As I was sitting there writing in my journal those words "I
bow down to the Holy one.." were beaconing me. I wanted to
just kneel down and worship, but I wanted to get all my
frustrations out in my journal. Then I remembered this
quote and the next words that I wrote in my journal were "I
am going to drop this attitude and choose to worship God
this very moment". That's what I did.
Do you know what? I learned the true meaning of "the joy
of the Lord is my strength". It is so illogical...but we
do it all the time in life. When we are in a bad mood
about something, don't we sometimes give it over to people
who will make us laugh? Well, this is like that, only
it's not just laughter, When we are truly able to give
ourselves over to the joy of the Lord, it's a joy that
permeates our whole being - a laughter that begins deep
where the Holy spirit dwells and makes it's way to the
surface where it bubbles over. When you realize just how
wonderful God is and just how not wonderful we are, it's
very easy to be joyful in the Lord.

You may say that it's really hard for you to do
this...maybe you are like me and insist that you are a
slave to your emotions. Maybe when you get upset you want
that feeling to go away so badly, but you don't think that
there's anything that you can do. It's not easy at first,
but it can be done. Start small. Go throughout your day
just being aware of what this means today, and keep it in
the forefront of your mind, and as you do that, eventually
you will find a situation where you can try this out. When
you do, you will realize the freedom of this, and
eventually you will be looking for more situations to try
this out. Pray to God to give you the strength to do
this. It's not a magic cure, but it will come slowly and
you will begin to see that God is changing you, because you
are allowing Him to.

beth