This week was pretty dang hard for me, but really what I've realized is it's my fault. Sometimes you really can't control your circumstances or what happens to you. That's just life. But one thing you can do is decide to be happy. Decide to enjoy life. That is one of the biggest decisions we can make, and it's a daily decision. Men are that they might have joy. We won't just have joy if we're sitting around getting mad and blaming others for bad things that happen. We have to make that decision ourselves to have joy.
Good decisions lead to freedom to make more decisions. Bad decisions lead to slavery of limited decisions. This week I finished the Lincoln Hypothesis, and instead of ending the book with Lincoln, Timothy Ballard used the last chapter (not to spoil it for anybody :D) to apply it to us. The American Covenant is still very intact, and we will only prosper if we decide to keep our side of the covenant. Right now, America really isn't choosing that. We're choosing to be lazy, reliant, and ignorant. In the past, America has just become greater and greater. We've been given more and more freedom, and right now, there is great freedom for Americans. That is diminishing though, because we are using our freedom to make bad decisions. Bad decisions lead to slavery. If we use our freedom right, then we will continue to gain more and more freedom and stewardship. If we decide to use our freedom in the wrong way, though, our freedom will be taken away. And that is what is going to happen if we continue to abuse our freedom.
So, decide today to be happy. And decide today just to make good decisions with the freedom that you have, because that will bring more freedom, and the alternative will bring slavery.
Loved it! Thanks for sharing that, we really are the ones who decide if we will be happy or not. No one else can make us feel happy or sad, it is our choice. If we are having a hard time choosing to be happy though, and really want to be happy, we can pray and ask for that gift, happiness is truly a gift. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of my post! ;) I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately and you summarized it so well! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI learned that happiness takes love, diligence, determination, and a lot of obedience.Loving God by keeping His commandments is what brings the most fulfilling joy.
Also, it's impossible to be truly happy when we are focused on ourselves all the time. It just doesn't work!
Becoming your best and happiest you requires loving and serving others. :)
I read this post: http://mylazarusquest.blogspot.com/2014/12/who-to-blame.html
ReplyDeleteby Mary this morning and it reminded me of what you said in this post. You should read the article she links on it - it's pretty powerful, I think you would like it, it goes along perfectly with the truth you discuss here.
That's another thing I learned last week is that even if things get thrown at me that I can't control I choose the way that I'm perceiving and dealing with them. It's so much easier to handle hard situations if you start out the day with 'Today I choose to be Happy! :)'
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