What if you flipped a coin every morning to determine how you felt the rest of the day? Would you really leave your emotions to chance? Or, would you make a decision and choose your attitude and how you approached the day? Here’s something to think about: Happenstance is a combination of the words “happen” and “circumstance”.  It means, “A circumstance especially that is due to chance”. Happen defined is, “to occur by chance”. One meaning for the word Happy means “favored by luck or fortune”. Here are three keys to being more thankful:

• In order to get the most out life, we should intentionally re-purpose our attitude to be appreciative for what we have, rather than to be “happy” about it.
•  Don’t let the situation dictate your attitude.  You see, happiness depends on our circumstances, whereas thankfulness is an intentional choice, a conscious decision that you make. Let’s continue to strive to be more thankful in our lives.
• Focus on what you do have, rather than what you don’t. Look for the good in things, not just the bad.

  I pray you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and become more appreciative in your life!!

What you and I believe is of the utmost of importance. The reason for this is that what we believe determines what is possible or impossible in our lives. So it’s up to us to come to a place where we choose to take off the restrictions in our lives. When we were children, we saw endless possibilities until someone told us we can’t, or that it’s not possible. Then we began to put boundaries on our lives. Jesus said in Mark 9:23’ “if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth”.

How many dreams have been left behind because we quit believing something is possible? Once you have decided to believe something or not, that’s when the world of possibilities opens up. What is impossible for one person may be possible for another. Why? Because it’s all about what you believe, not what someone else believes. Some thought it was impossible to go to the moon, but others who believed…well, we know how that one turned out.

What does the term “stuffing” make you think of? With Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner, maybe you visualize the stuffing that goes into the turkey.

“Stuffing” from a psychological view is when a person continually “stuffs” their emotions until one day they blow up or have some type of breakdown. When we experience pain, we need to know it’s ok to grieve, to feel sadness, anger or disappointment. If we go through the whole spectrum of emotions, we shouldn’t feel as if we are weak or that we let someone else down. In fact, God has given us a wide array of emotions that we shouldn’t “stuff”. Those emotions and feelings never go away.    On the other hand, you shouldn’t “pitch a tent” with those emotions, either. It’s not healthy to stay in one emotional state of mind for a long period of time. Experiencing sadness, anger or any other emotion from time to time is ok, especially if there is some pain or loss tied to it. Work through it, let it go and move on in life. 

Every day, when we get up, most of us want to feel secure in our lives. We place our security in many different things. Some of us place it in people, so when someone lets us down, we become decimated. Some of us place it in our job, and yet, we’ve seen what looks like the most stable businesses go under. Whatever it is that we substitute for God becomes the thing that we serve. The Bible says not to put your trust in uncertain riches, which are here today and gone tomorrow. We need to become secure in who created us, the Earth and everything in it.

If we are secure in God and our relationship with Him, we will always be able to handle whatever comes our way. Placing your trust in the wrong things for the wrong reasons is the reason why so many people are living broken lives. If we choose to place our trust in God, He is faithful and reliable. Where is your security placed? Have we mistakenly placed it somewhere that is bound to fail, or in the One who will never fail? (Romans 10:9-10) 

Life is a contact sport and if we are going to live it to some degree successfully, we are going to have to learn to play hurt. Cal Ripken, a great baseball player, was known as the Iron Man of baseball because of his string of consecutive games played. When asked how he did it, he said, You have to learn to play hurt. As we live life, people get hurt, disappointed and things don't go well. When this happens, people tend to shut down, quit or develop an attitude that is wrong and causes pain. At some point, all of us will experience setbacks, pain, and hurt; it's how we deal with it that will determine our success in the future. We shouldn't allow ourselves to become bitter or cynical about life. When we do, it only causes us to see life through a lens of hurt and with no hope. We need to learn to play hurt and realize that pain will heal and disappointments won't last forever. We should trust God to help us all the way through.

Just a Thought,

PSS

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