QUIET TIME: sharing the blessings not just your struggles through your journey...

We all have been given the ability to choose where we focus our thoughts.

...fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.
2 Cor 10:5 The MSG

People with their mind sets on you, you keep completely whole, Steady on their feet, because they keep at it and don't quit.
Isaiah 26:3 the MSG


I have done so many different devotionals on this subject and they all read very similar.  I have filled the pages of my journal with worries, cries and anger to the point where it was no longer even helpful to me to continue venting to a book.  I don't know about you, but I tend to find it so hard to think about positive outcomes when I am in the middle of quick sand.

I have find myself saying more that I feel so overwhelmed from how this last year went.  I have shared the struggles, the pains, the anger and all the other emotions that are difficult that come with battling through hurtful relationships, sickness and loss.  Well I think it is time that I stop talking about the hurts and start sharing with you the blessings and the growths and all the amazing things that have come from this last year.

If we keep focusing our thoughts on all the trials we have faced and look at them from the view that they have been so hard, painful, overwhelming, exhausting, impossible, and just plain frustrating then that is how sometimes we begin to feel.  The key word here is focusing.  We can acknowledge in a healthy way that your storm has been rough, but be careful not to dwell on the hardship your storm has been.  What were the blessings and joys that came from your storm????

My last year.  Finding the blessings in the storm.  I am going to share my new focus.

1. STORM:  My mom diagnosed with Breast Cancer and later passed to be with our Father in Heaven in July.
• BLESSING: Found a peace I never thought I would encounter in my relationship with my mother.  Learned how to lean on God's will and plan for all of our lives through the battle itself.  Learned to not take our time here for granted, because tomorrow is truly not guaranteed.  Found forgiveness through some very intense hurting.  Learned how to celebrate through the pain.  Reunited with my sister I had not seen since I was 10 came to visit for support.  Filled with love from all the friends and families that came to surround our family through the times we were preparing for the end.  I got to spend my 29th birthday by my mom's side.  I got to spend the last night my mother was here with her at her home and got to be with her when she passed.  I got to say goodbye and tell her that we loved her.
2. STORM:  Homeschooling struggles that left me wanting to throw in the towel and quit.
• BLESSING:  Support from other moms who have all been here on this bump in the road.  Peace of mind that I am doing what God has planned for our family.  I get to build a close relationship with my girls everyday on a more unique intimate level since they are here with me with no interruptions.  I get to see what my daughters' specific needs are and have the opportunities to help them through it in a way that would not be there if I were to GIVE UP!  We have an amazing schedule that allows us to be free to do what we need to learn and be with one another.
3. STORM:  Difficult relationships.  Whether it be a rough friendship that drags you down, or a marriage that seems so far off that you don't know how to fix it.
• BLESSING:  I have found that when I turn my focus on the facts that God will fight for me and will heal the broken then my mind doesn't overcome me with all the harmful emotions such as loneliness, anxiety, worry, anger, resentment.  I have been blessed with amazing accountability partners that are always focused on the outcome that God wants not what they want for themselves or for me.

Don't focus on the storm itself.  Focus on the blessings through the storms that ARE THERE you just have to acknowledge them and see them for yourself.

Thank you Father for showing me the blessings I have to focus on every day through all my storms that will come my way.  Thank you father for a church home that constantly is used to remind me that I am not alone and that there is a peace out there that can only be found in you, God.  Thank you for the people you surrounded me and my family with, Father.  You have always been there and when I focus my thoughts to be on you and your truth then I don't have time to let the toxic thoughts defeat me.  Let me continue to set my mind on you.  I will not let the struggles that are promised to come in this life drag me down. Amen.