Make your way through

There's a saying that 'you're either coming out of a problem, in the middle of a problem, or just heading into a problem.'  I don't know who said it, but I find it to be true.  I've also heard that the way you handle a problem will determine how long you stay in the problem.  If you dwell in negativity and a bad attitude, the problem will hang around longer than if you decide that this issue will not get the best of you.  No matter how bad things seem, if you push through and tell yourself that 'this too shall pass', that attitude will bring you through faster. If you allow bitterness, fear, or hatred, to get even a toehold into your situation, your situation can become exponentially worse.

Please realize that the troubles I am talking about are not problems such as a minor fender bender on the way to work, being a few dollars short and being days from pay day, or co-workers that get on your nerves.  These are things that you can deal with, or make work, even to God's glory.  No, I'm talking about issues so serious that it seems your entire life has or will change because of this issue.  Most of us had a general plan for our lives, plans so general that we all assumed, and took for granted that these plans would come to pass.  But what happens when we realize our lives will not happen the way we expected or hoped?  How will we handle these realizations, and how will we live the life we have been given?  How will we play the hand we have been dealt?

We all have the ability to make choices.  We all have the opportunity to choose positively or negatively what we will do when life does not work out in the way we expected.  We can allow ourselves to become and remain stuck in a place of bitterness or hatred, or we can decide to live a blessed and positive life even if it is not the life we wanted.  Decide.  Decision.  Most of us know what the word decision means.  We know how to spell it without much difficulty, it is a word that is used by most of the general population; but I took the liberty of looking up the definition on Bing.com. Decision=process of choosing: the process of coming to a conclusion or determination about something.  So there were three definitions on Bing.com.  This is the third definition and I preferred it to the other two definitions because it seemed more definite to me.  After all, once you come to a decision on most things in life, it is difficult to change your mind without some level of difficulty, otherwise it wasn't much of an issue to begin with.  My opinion.

When you come to a conclusion or determination that you will not allow bitterness or any other negative emotion to become the norm in your life, you have made a decision.  And it was a good decision.  I do not like to use the word ugly to describe anyone because we are all made in the image of God.  I do not believe there are any physically ugly people.  I do believe however, that negative emotions can make people ugly.  If you decide to allow bitterness, hatred, envy, backbiting, backstabbing, or any negative emotion or act to take up residence in you, you will become that emotion.  Those emotions are ugly. 

If you decide to push through whatever issues brought you to these emotions, even if you must live with those issues or problems your entire life, you do not have to live with those emotions.  Don't stay there, don't dwell there, make your way through.  If you do this, all of the negative emotions must go.  They can't hang around where they are not used. 
Hang in there and allow God to make all your crooked ways straight.