If He brings you to it, He'll bring you through it

Good morning yall!! I’m so sorry there was no post yesterday…ok that’s a total and complete LIE. I’m not sorry even a little bit, because instead of sitting at my computer, I took little man, met up with Cathy and James and their little man, and went outside to enjoy the first really pretty spring day of the year. And when I say pretty, I mean it was a B-E-A-U-T-ful day!!! We took full advantage of it too! It was kind of stinky because my husband was working on the ambulance and couldn’t enjoy it with us, but it was still a good time!

I’m also not sorry because the topic of my post changed dramatically. My intention was to write about Easter Sunday because Easter is really the most significant day of the year. It’s always incredibly emotional – I can’t get through an Easter service (or really even that part of the gospels) without sobbing.

But really, I don’t have anything new or different to say about Easter. It’s powerful, and an incredibly meaningful experience every year, and I feel my relationship with Christ grow every time I think about what He did for me…but I think that’s the same thing any Christian would say. So, rather than talk about that today, I’d like to talk about something that I’ve known for awhile, but really hit home to me yesterday: the importance of the attitude we live by.

A young woman about my age recently found out that she’s having a baby! This isn’t the same woman I was talking about in my recent post, but as you can imagine, I had a similar reaction because, well, I love babies. This young woman isn’t exactly in what you might call an ideal situation, but she’s pretty excited too (again because, well, BABY!!). On top of that, she got some news yesterday that is going to make her situation even more difficult. But let me tell you, I was just blown away by her attitude. It would have been so easy for her to be negative; it’s a lot of hard things happening all at once. But she refuses.

And that’s all there is to it. She chose to be positive, and that changes everything. When you refuse to let negative things bring you down, you are making the choice to refuse to admit defeat. It’s not ignoring that things are going to be hard, but rather embracing the challenge, and rising to meet it. And I firmly believe that’s half the battle won right there. When you make the choice to live with a positive attitude, you’re strengthening yourself and not giving your situation power over you.

I go back to the Bible for everything because that’s where I find truth in how to live, and in this case, I can’t help but think of Job. Everything that could have gone wrong for him did. Nothing could possibly be as bad as the struggles he was faced with. Struggle is too minor a word for what he went through. That poor man went through the wringer, and then some. But his attitude never wavered. He acknowledged that things were hard and he wanted them to be easier, but he maintained his positive attitude. In Job 13:15-16, he says, “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him…Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance.” And he was absolutely right. He stayed positive, put his trust in the Lord, and he was brought through it. We’re told in Job 42:12 that “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the former part.”

Things happen for a reason, and that reason is all to His good. And we know it is all to our good too, because the Lord speaks to us in Jeremiah 29:11: “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

So there’s really no reason to be negative. We already know the end of the story! We know that everything works for the good, even if it’s hard to find the good in a hard situation. That’s not to say that we sit back and let God handle everything, because as I’ve mentioned before, the Bible tells us in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “

The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” We have to do some work, and a lot of the time, it’s going to be hard work. No one ever said that life was easy. But if we put in that hard work, and maintain our positivity, there’s nothing we can’t make it through.

I'm going to end with the lyrics to Chris August's song, "He Said."

So your life feels like it don't make sense 
And you think to yourself, 'I'm a good person' 
So why do these things keep happening? 
Why you gotta deal with them? 

You may be knocked down now 
but don't forget what He said, He said 

(Chorus) I won't give you more, more then you can take 
and I might let you bend, but I won't let you break 
and No-o-o-o-o, I'll never ever let you go-o-o-o-o 
Don't you forget what He said 

Who you are ain't what your going through 
So don't let it get the best of you 
Cause God knows everything you need, 
so you ain't gotta worry 

You may be knocked down now 
but just believe what He said, He said 

(Chorus)

Don't fear when you go through the fire 
Hang on when it's down to the wire 
Stand tall and remember what He said 

I won't give you more, more then you can take 
and I might let you bend, but I won't let you break... 

(Chorus)

 

And now here is my little man looking ADORABLE in his Easter outfit! Do you love it?? I love it!