I've been learning a lot about choices over the past year. How I chose to live and how are my choices going to effect the rest of my life; how I chose to react and how is that going to effect those around me.
Some choices have been really easy to make, while others haven't been. And some of the things I thought would be hard were easier than I thought and what I thought would be easy haven't been. I've had to choose my battles and chose what were the really important things to pursue and go after. I've also had to forgive myself and ask others for forgiveness for the choices I have made.
"The difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is how you use them."- Author Unknown
It's all about your attitude over what comes your way. You have the choice on how you will react and how you will take the situation that comes your way and make the best out of it. You can choose to see the glass half-empty or the glass half-full. I'm faced with this daily as a part of a personal growth "program" that I am on requires me to write down every day the good in the unpleasant situations that I am faced with. I sometimes have to force myself to see the positive in the midst of the negative things that come my way. It's not always easy and life can really suck and it's hard to see how this can be good for me, but I've been noticing over the past couple of months that my attitude has really changed and I think I'm not as quick to react negatively when bad things happen.
There are a lot of things lately that have been testing my patience, my love, my forgiveness, my motives...basically testing my character and integrity...and they have not been easy and frustrating and annoying. But I know that I'm becoming a better person because of these things little by little and my future really depends how on I deal with things today. If I can take what's coming at me and learn from it and push myself to deal with it and come out on the other side, I know that I can deal with things that come my way in the future and have positive personal outcomes. But it all depends on my choosing to keep pushing through and not giving up when times get hard. I have the choice to make changes and fight through it or I can make the choice to stay the same and/or to run away from these things that are coming against me.
Sometimes we choose to just stay where we are or to run away because dealing with these things can be uncomfortable and can even hurt. Dealing with these things will cause us to have to make changes in our minds and in our ways of thinking and changing our mindsets based on past hurts and experiences can be hard mentally and emotionally. I'm personally still struggling with the choice to love and accept myself for who I am. Based off of what I felt growing up and the experiences I've had up until the past year, made me feel that I was not worthy of anyone's love and acceptance, and that's not an easy mindset to break. There are situations everyday that challenge me to make the choice on how I am going to feel about myself, and the more I choose to accept and love myself, the easier I am finding it to not be dependent on other people for my needs to be met.
We can choose how we are going to let our past effect our present. We can keep making excuses for why we are the way we are, but we can make the choice to change those things about us that may not be the best for us. We can choose to forgive or to hold onto hurts others have caused; we can choose whether or not to let what others have done to us daily influence our thoughts and our actions. We can choose whether or not to act out on others what we are feeling inside. We can choose to remain captive by our thoughts and experiences or we can live in emotional, mental and spiritual freedom. I am not saying I have conquered many of these things, as I have not, but there are moment by moment choices we make that will effect our lives and the lives around us.
“The end result of your life here on earth will always be the sum total of the choices you made while you were here.”- Shad Helmstetter ---Our world, both our world in general and our own personal worlds, will be influenced by the choices we make. They may not be easy choices at times but sometimes perseverance and determination to see things positively and seem them as stepping stones instead of stumbling blocks will produce the best results in your life.
I know the path that God has my life on isn't going to be easy but I'm choosing not to run away anymore and I choose to take these things that come at me and use them as way to improve myself and my character. My choice is to live for Him the best way I can as I am able to with His grace and mercy and love.
