Dear Negativity,
I am writing you today to officially break up. After nearly 31 years, it’s time for us to go our separate ways. For too long, I have relied on you in order to “make sense” of the struggles in my life and avoid problem solving altogether. For too long, you have monopolized my mind, manipulated my thoughts and mandated my time. It’s over. Proverbs 21:23 says - “Those who guard their mouths and their tongues keep themselves from CALAMITY.” Calamity is defined as a “disastrous event marked by great loss and lasting distress and suffering” (Marriam-Webster). Umm… that is powerful. I could avoid this “CALAMITY” by guarding how I talk and how I think? Grounding myself in positive, life giving thoughts, actions and conversations can guard me from lasting distress and suffering? Well, why didn’t someone tell me this 31 years ago? Because our culture thrives off of negativity. Many of our upbringings and thus current lives had/have elements of negativity and “never enough”-ness a part of them, comparison has become an epidemic in the social media centric culture we are now a part of. Our sermon today was about “What you sow is what you reap”. I have heard this 1,000 times in my life, but never, until today, was I hit like I was. My words, thoughts, actions and reactions are all seeds that I am planting, either internally of externally in my circle of influence. What I plant with these seeds is something that has the potential to continue generationally. This means that justifying a bad attitude, negative talk or the woah-is-me mentality can live on for generations…. is this the legacy I want to leave? Certainly not… This is NOT what God has called me to do or to be. We are supposed to live out God’s light into our world, to both others and ourselves. We need to stop speaking negative over our lives and our circumstances because what we say, to both others and ourselves, is what we see play out in our lives. It is literally impossible to live a positive life with a negative attitude. Our pastor said today, “You can’t LEAD someone else to a positive life with a negative attitude”. Mic drop. We need to get this right. We as humans, we as Christians, we as parents, we as friends, we as influencers. People are depending on our JOY in order to combat the every growing culture of dissatisfaction. Because a life dissatisfied is the opposite of how God has called us to live. The biggest perspective change for me today was when this was said: “A lot of what we are living right now was a dream or a prayer of our past.” So the negative things I am thinking in my world right now, when put through the “things I prayed for in the past” filter, really change the way I think about this idea of “negative”. “Ugh! My kids are driving me nuts!” - I prayed for active, funny, talkative kids. “Ugh! My job is so frustrating and time consuming!” - I prayed for a career that would inspire me to use my gifts and talents to make an impact in this world. “Ugh! If my husband leaves one more pair of dirty underwear on the ground… I”m going to loose it!” I have a husband, who works hard, comes home to me every night and…. and honestly, we have money to buy underwear and laundry detergent. Perspective change. Has my “woah is me” life over the last few years really been what I thought it has? Or was it because of the way I have handled situations, through the lens of negativity instead of joy? Would my struggles in the past have been different, less in number or frequency or even non-existent if the way I spoke into my life and the lives of people around me would have been grounded in satisfaction and encouragement? I don’t know…. But what I do know is that today was a shift for me. For my sake, the sake of my family and for others in my circle of influence. As contagious as negativity is, I want to radiate joy more. We get to choose how we speak, live and act. So today, I officially Choose Joy. And not in the put it on a painted sign and then it becomes true kind of way, the for real way. What would our lives be like if they were grounded in joy, encouragement and satisfaction? How would our perspective change? How would our influence grow? How would our impact for The Kingdom be used? Dear negativity, As T- Swift says, we are never-ever-ever, getting back together. - Care, Not Carry. |
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