Circumstances

Do you let your circumstances define you or do you define them?

The circumstances of life have been on my mind lately. Life is great for some people...it sucks for others. Life seems to go so smoothly sometimes...at other times it seems like a never-ending roller coaster. Some people are stuck in the middle of really crappy circumstances...others are living through amazing ones. Some people look at their own circumstances, and even if they're crappy, they do what they can to make things work...others wallow in self-pity, having the "why me?" mentality. In a nut shell, the later allow their circumstances to define, dictate and drive their life.

By looking at those around me, I've learned that happiness and joy are both choices. I have seen people experiencing devastating things in their life, but to look at them you'd never know. They are not allowing their circumstances to define them. On the other side of the coin, I have seen people experiencing devastating things in their life, and to look at them you would most DEFINITELY know! They ARE allowing their circumstances to define them.

I was talking to my sister yesterday about this. She said that she had been thinking about how sometimes it seems to take a really long time to see how God's hand is working in a situtation and then how other times he seems to work almost immediately. She summed this up by saying, "Maybe it's because I've learned what God has wanted me to learn quicker in some cases."

Maybe we need to look at our circumstances as God trying to show us that we can find joy and happiness no matter what. That "being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections." Can we look beyond the imperfections of life and see the good that surrounds us everyday? Can we "Trust in the Lord with all our hearts, and lean not on our own understanding. In all our ways acknowledge Him and allow Him to make our paths straight?"

Maybe we are allowing our circumstances to define us...maybe we are not CHOOSING happiness and joy...maybe we are not looking beyond the imperfections of crappy circumstances....maybe we are not trusting in the Lord...

...yet again...maybe we are!!