Isn’t it funny how some of the really simple lessons in life are some of the same ones that are hard to learn? I find this is so true of myself. And, sometimes I feel like I am learning the same lesson over and over again. I think we may have talked about that a little bit before.
For me, it does seem like I am learning things over and over again, especially lately, I continue to be reminded of how impactful other things, people, and circumstances can be to my disposition, mood and happiness. And, if I am being honest, sometimes I can allow these other things take my joy away. Now, I am not saying that is something that I should allow – because it’s NOT. But one thing I will always be is truthful about how human I am and how much I need grace EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
Notice that I used the word allow. One thing we probably have all learned at this point in life is that we cannot control anyone, and there are a lot of things and circumstances we cannot control either. Now, as I am typing this, thinking about all the things we cannot control and yet we still find ourselves in the middle of them. Now, sometimes, that is our own doing. We either cannot make a change or we choose not to make a change for whatever reason. And, sometimes, God puts us in the middle of a circumstance … because, you know, that IS how we learn and grow and how we are molded …. by all those things that WE cannot change and God can use them to change our hearts, right.. sometimes that is the reason for those things.
Whether we are in a circumstance by God’s provision or if we make the choice to not remove ourselves… we do have control over how we allow things to influence us. The things we disagree with, things we feel are not right, others attitudes, disrespect, or unfair judgements, we can let them get us ‘all tore up’ as some would say or we can take a breath, remember that we have control of our emotions, and have a moment of perspective.
Maybe for some of us, the moment of perspective involves taking a break, going out to the garage and hitting some golf balls to let out some anger, of course, while gathering our perspective, LOL. But, then after we’ve had a moment… think. These things that we let bother us so much, are they really worth all of that anger energy we just allowed them to have? Are they really worth it? Do we really care about their opinion of us that much? I mean, is it of any value really? … Probably not if it ticked us off so badly. LOL.
What if instead of letting these other influences impact us so deeply, what if we told on them to God in prayer. What if we tell Him all about it and then trust Him to take care of it. Then, what if we hit some golf balls or whatever relieves stress for us, shake it off, let God deal with it, and then remember who we are. We are God’s Child… that IS WHO we are.
What if we limit ourselves to the circumstance as much as possible, what if we remember that we don’t HAVE to care about their opinion of us, because it does NOT define us – NOT AT ALL And then what if we do something we enjoy, listen to music that makes us happy, hug our dogs, workout, enjoy some outside time, read a book, whatever our thing is that we love that brings us happiness… what if we do that and let God take care of the nasty stuff. Truth be told, He is much better at it than we are anyway. We got nothing going when it comes to making people change. Nothing. We cannot control others…but we always have a choice of what we do and how we react to our feelings.
Much Love ♥️
Michelle
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