Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Misery Loves Company

All I can say is guilty as charged. For those of you who know me; you know that I am usually a very happy, positive and up beat person. My boss even jokes that one day out of the blue he is going to come in and tell me I am fired, just to see if my smiles comes off my face. But, I promise him, it won’t! So, why am I guilty of being misery?

Well, it seems like lately situations, people and words bring me down….tear me down and fester inside me, like worms on rotten food. Ewww, right? YES. Because, years ago when I turned my life over to Christ, I promised that, that would not be me. And, for the most part I do a really good job. People will always see me happy and with a smile.

The way I have learned to work through the negative and be happy again is to talk about it with God and Pray. But, not dwell on it and allow it to fester. It's when we hold on to these things that we become bitter and sad, that to me is the enemy trying to steal your joy. I think that when I try to use this same method with people I unintentionally bring them down with me and that's NOT what I mean or intend to do. Not fair to other happy and positive people.

Just yesterday I emailed a friend about my current situation, afterward all I could think was,


CONNIE!! GET OVER IT!!!!


And I am sure at this point she wants to come over and smack me upside the head and say the same thing, Love You Casey. So I realized, why? Why and I being so miserable, focusing on the negative and judging others when I know all those thoughts are wrong? I am usually the person who advises others to  think happy thought and focus on the positive and here I am ignoring my own advice?!
Well I read this Devotional yesterday that I hope helps you work out all of the negative; the way it did me:

Daily Dose by Renee Glover

[PROSPERITY AND PERSECUTION
“Jesus said, Truly I tell you, there is no one who has given up and left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for My sake and for the Gospel's Who will not receive a hundred times as much now in this time--houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions--and in the age to come, eternal life. But many [who are now] first will be last [then], and many [who are now] last will be first [then].”~Mark 10:29-31
The Body of Christ has entered a decade of untold prosperity. There is now upon us a new dimension of power and success. However, with prosperity of any kind and in any area comes persecution. As believers, we should know and expect someone to be unhappy over our progress. So unhappy in fact, that they will come against us by any means possible. You see, God’s enemy, the devil, does not want His sons or daughters to be prosperous. As usual, our Father God has given us weapons by which to deflate and defeat all attacks. There are some things we can do to help ourselves through the storms of persecution headed our way. We can spend our time before the Lord praying and making confessions of faith. We can fast and submit ourselves humbly and wholly before the Lord. We can spend our time, energy and words in creating new goals and bigger dreams. In addition, we need to stay awake, alert, and aware making sure to forgive all those who use and persecute us. These are easy things to do. Why? Because we know God is standing with us and we have the victory!]

And I took the following excerpts from Lysa TerKeurst's Blog:
“But learning to navigate raw emotions isn't a step by step process. For me, it's more like pealing back the layers of an onion and honestly dealing with whatever I find. If I find ugly there, I have to see it for what it is, call it what it is, and make the choice to progress or regress.”
“Opportunities to progress or regress don't come in tidy times of complete rationality. They come in the midst of hard situations.”

“Patience is birthed through situations that beg us to be impatient. Gentleness is birthed in situations that beg us to be angry. Courage is birthed through situations that beg us to be afraid.”

“Each time we feel a raw emotion coming to the surface it's an opportunity to either fall back into patterns that make us wallow in guilt or choose more wisely and make progress.”

"Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil," (Ephesians 4: 26-27).

“My emotional heart moves faster than my rational mind.”
“That's why I must pause-pause-pause before my mouth speaks. I have to redirect the place from which my words will come. If they come from my fast moving, revved up, irrational, heart- I will react out of my feelings in the moment.”

“I didn't remember to pause other times. That's where God's grace steps in and reminds me old habits sometimes die hard”
Yesterday as I wrote to Casey…I should have paused. I hope she can forgive me. Like I said this week I am working through a lot. I am getting there and hope others can learn from it.




3 comments:

Monique said...

Beautiful. Thank you for sharing this and it has helped me tremendously. God Bless. :)

Connie Leon said...

Ahh Well Thank You Monique! I think sharing and "talking it out" is the only way for me to get past it and move on...so i am glad it helped you! :D

Casey Ayala (DreamTree Photography) said...

I love you, Connie!!!