FOCUS ON YOUR OPPORTUNITIES NOT YOUR RIGHTS I’ve had my trials and troubles. The Lord has given me both vinegar and honey, but he has given me the vinegar with a teaspoon and the honey with a ladle. BILLY BRAY Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about these things. People and circumstances dont determine your attitude, you do! To win in life you must learn to focus on your opportunities, not your rights. Paul wrote from a prison cell, Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Clearly, circumstances could lock Paul in, but they couldnt keep him down. One of the biggest causes of unhappiness is our constant struggle to “secure our rights.” Have you been wronged? Do you feel like you havent gotten a fair shake? Thats because you live in an imperfect world. And as long as you do, you wont see a time when everything you do is justly rewarded. So youre faced with a decision: Are you going to spend your time and energy on what should have been, or get over it and focus on what can be? Even when truth and justice are on your side, you may never be able to right all your wrongs. But ultimately God will, so leave it in His hands. Continually fighting for your rights just makes you angry and resentful, because these destructive emotions sap your energy and make you negative. And besides, when you focus on your rights youre usually looking backward. You cant make progress when youre facing the wrong way! Only when you face the right direction will you move in the right direction. Now this doesnt mean you wont experience pain, it just means you have chosen to forgive, and zeroed in on what you can control—your attitudes and your opportunities. If we were able to see the story of our lives as though it were a movie about someone we didn’t know and we were the movie critic….would we give our performance “a thumbs up”? Would we say our character played in a tragedy but through it all kept his chin up believing for a happy ending or would we say he struggled through every trial as though the sun would never come out again? I believe we, as Christians, would be very disappointed in the way we communicate this “hope” we’re supposed to possess. We walk around most of the day complaining about this and that…crying about how mistreated we are…telling anyone who’ll listen about how this hurts and that won’t move like it used to. We paint ourselves as though we’re broke, broken-hearted and broke-backed. What kinda movie is this anyway? The truth? The sun’ll come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there’ll be sun…tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow you’re only a day away. Come on sing it! It may a little goofy but you’re smiling and wasn’t that the goal? You’re going to heaven…show it! Thought to ponder: Enjoy where u r while youre waiting to get where u want 2 B.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 23:17:42 +0000
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