Bitter or Better?

Happiness is a choice so let's start the day with a renewed attitude!

2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

As adults, we must pave our own path and stop blaming our parents for our shortcomings. The Bible says to “honor thy father and thy mother.” Honoring our parents may not fix all our shortcomings, but it usually works well as an overriding principal to those of us who blame our parents for everything. Let us love and honor the people who did the best job of raising us given their own shortcomings and circumstances. When we honor our parents, God sees our obedience and He will honor us and grant us the desires of our heart and erase all the bad from our past.

I was reading someone’s comment on the internet... she stated that she finally found peace with her parents when she read a bumper sticker while waiting at a stop sign: “It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.” This lady further stated that for her, following the Bible commandment “Honor thy father and thy mother”, is what changed her outlook on life. She could not change her childhood, but she chose to remember the good things. She said that her parents have passed away for some time now, but she likes to think that even today when she remembers the good things, no matter how small, she has a positive and honoring connection with them.

From the time we are born into adulthood, we know the right from wrong. God has placed that instinct in us. That instinct is nurtured by our parents during our formative years the best way they knew how. We grow up knowing the right from wrong and we make our choices. Everything in life, good or bad, we choose what to do with that knowledge and we continue to live by learning from our mistakes. Therefore, there is no need to blame our parents or anyone else. They did what they could with the knowledge and resources they had at the time. And no matter how much we want to blame others, there comes a time when we are responsible for our actions. Instead of blaming others or denying the problem, we need to change our direction and focus on correcting what’s not right so we can do better for ourselves and for our children.

We have to recognize our shortcomings and strongholds and attack them one by one. Only then we can proceed with the right attitude for a better future. Nobody is perfect. Our parents are also products of their own parents. We have to realize that when we become parents one day, we will make mistakes too no doubt. You have to step out into action to live your life to the fullest. You cannot step back into safety and dwell on past regrets because you will miss out on your God-given opportunities.

Yes our parents have something to do with who we are today, but not everything. We are also influenced by our teachers, babysitters, friends, environment, co-workers, and last but not least our own coping mechanism with each battle we are faced with. The devil is very much alive and he works overtime to steal, kill, and destroy our strength, hope and joy. He magnifies our little shortcomings and erases the good from our past. My pastor used to say ‘we use the same amount of energy to think negatively as we do positively; so why not use our energy towards positive?’ God can wipe away our tears and our hurts and give us a new beginning, but we have to be willing to change.

Isaiah58:58 "Then my favor will shine on you like the morning sun, and your wounds will be quickly healed. I will always be with you to save you; my presence will protect you on every side."

I would like to share a short story about my childhood. When I was 2-years old, my dad passed away from severe allergy reaction to Penicillin. Soon after that, my mom abandoned me and my two older brothers. My aunt (my dad’s sister) had a big heart and adopted us even though she had 7 grown children of her own. When my two brothers came of age, they decided to move out and be on their own. In their minds, they were doing this as a favor to my aunt. Before they moved out, they told my aunt that it was best if I stayed with her since I was young and I needed a mom. Their decision to move out and leave me with my aunt tore me apart. Not that I didn’t love my aunt and her family or not that they didn’t take care of me and love me, but I was going to be separated from my two brothers (the only two things I could hold on to from my past). However, my brothers did what they thought was best for me and my aunt at the time without realizing how their decision would affect me emotionally. Yes, it was hard in the beginning and I could have held on to my ashes and make myself miserable forever, but I chose not to because I knew they had my best interest at heart. We can't cry over spilled milk, we have to move forward and when we are willing to move forward then God, who sees our willingness, will replace our ashes with His beauty.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."

In our life experiences, not everything that happens to us is good, however if we are obedient to God, He can change our bad experiences to something good. We can overcome our hurts by using our own experiences to help others overcome theirs. As long as we stay obedient to God, He will not waste our burdens, instead He will use them to promote us and to turn them to our greatest ministries. God knows our flaws, limits and capabilities, therefore He won't give us more than we can handle and He won't forsake us because He is a covenant God.

Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step. When we do our part, God will do His. His grace is sufficient for everyone. When we are weak, He is strong! His joy is our strength!

Our shortcomings that we often over-magnify, somehow become embarrassingly minute after we watch the video below. In this world, we will fight our share of battles, however "how" we fight those battles depends greatly on our attitude and the choices we make. There comes a time when we can no longer blame our past for our present! Here’s the challenge: "Do you want to be Bitter or Better? It is a choice!

God Bless,

Lucine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ZuKF3dxCY or http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/