Shall we continue where I left off...

I believe God has implanted in us the ability to thrive.  Yes, we have difficult times and seasons in life but it all has to do with our mindset.
I know the message of survival is all around us.  We hear it in song, we read in books, we hear on the news, it’s posted on social networks---survive to live! So we have to change our mindset from surviving to thriving--one day at a time!  

If we pay attention we have thriving everyday hero's all around us.   I have a brother who temporarily lost his sight and is fighting to get it back, but I don’t see him just surviving; I see him thriving.  When I talk to him, I am not invited to a pity party, he isn’t quitting life…he is responding to life with a thriving mentality.   I have a brother-in-law who was diagnosed with cancer.  I never hear him talking about the diagnosis, he is thriving and working on the mission that God gave him in life.

Read books from authors who are telling you their story of overcoming and thriving in life.  It may be buried in the news but look for the story of triumph from people who have survived but are also thriving.  And above all, chose to believe what God has said in His word about you.  There are so many examples in our Bibles of people who in spite of harsh conditions thrived.  Jesus being our great example.  

 It’s your snapshot…so you have a choice to enter THE THRIVING ZONE…you can be a survivor or a thriver!  Remember, what we do around here…if we don’t like something in our snapshot , we change it!  

I want to take a couple of days to talk about something that caught my attention on yesterday.  It came from a book that I read.  It came from a conversation with someone I had.   It came from old memories stored in my heart.  Let's begin with the book I was reading.  The name of the book was I DECLARE by Joel Osteen.  There was a chapter in in the book (Day Twenty-Five) where he addressed the topic of "the surviving and thriving" mindset!  He encouraged the reader to say:  I DECLARE I will not just survive; I will thrive!  I will prosper despite every difficulty that may come my way.” (There was more but I encourage you to read the book.)  


My point is that I never realized how many people, including myself, have lived life in survival mode.  Yet, we don't have to.  Why?  Once again, it's our snapshot and we have two choices:  We can either survive or thrive!

As for me, you would have thought I was one of the participants on the reality show, SURVIVOR!  I wasn't a huge fan of the show but the concept is one most have adapted in life.  It's all about survival!  My life at some points has mainly been about surviving.  And if I heard a song about surviving, I sang it, LOUD AND PROUD!  I did not recognize that my survival years made no room for growth.  Okay, so you grow to an extent but you never maximize your full potential.  You become stationary and content with where you are in life because you survived a (or some) traumatic ordeal in your life.  Meaning:  you become stuck, you don’t move from that complacent mode of self-protective.  

When you are in survival mode there is a constant battle within which comes from those difficult times in our lives, whether it is from abuse, sickness, mistreatment, loss, or anything that causes you a great deal of pain.  And, we can become accustomed to thinking we are justified by our mentality. But God doesn't want us to live there.  According to Psalm 55:18, we have to realize that God has delivered our soul in peace from the battle within...

Let's continue this topic later...

Life is…

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.

Life is beauty, admire it.

Life is a dream, realize it.

Life is a challenge, meet it.

Life is a duty, complete it.

Life is a game, play it.

Life is a promise, fulfill it.

Life is sorrow, overcome it.

Life is a song, sing it.

Life is a struggle, accept it.

Life is a tragedy, confront it.

Life is an adventure, dare it.

Life is luck, make it.

Life is too precious, do not destroy it.

Life is life, fight for it.

                                   -Mother Theresa