Who’s in Control?

Resilience is defined as: the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties : toughness : an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change. Resilience is a skill that can and should be developed. It will improve your ability to deal with life’s setbacks.

Characteristics of resilience:

Resilient people are aware of situations, their own emotional reactions, and the behavior of those around them.

Another characteristic of resilience is the understanding that life is full of challenges. This is one skill that will help us move forward and succeed in life.

Resilience gives you a sense of control. Do you perceive yourself as having control over your own life, or are you constantly blaming outside sources for failures and problems? What we need to understand is that all of us have the ability to make choices that will affect our situation, our ability to cope, and our future.

Resilient people are able to find solutions to life’s setbacks — they never give up or quit. They take the hit and then see the solution and move forward. They will identify as a survivor, not a victim.

Inflexibility:

The opposite of being resilient is being depressed or constantly unhappy, being hard, inflexible, rigid. We are developing skills, characteristics, whether we realize it or not. The question is, “Are we developing the skill of being depressed, the skill of unhappiness, or the skill of being resilient?” The choice is yours. Are you rigid, or do you roll with the punches? Are you inflexible or flexible, willing to change? Your call.

I pray you make the right decision.

Just a thought,

PSS

We live in a world where we have so many options.

Choices:

If you want a soda, does that mean Coke, Pepsi, Dr Pepper, Sprite, etc.? If you want a restaurant, do you want steak, Italian food, Mexican food, Chinese food, etc.?  It’s the same thing with buying shoes or clothes. We are presented with so many options that at times it is difficult to make a decision.

Indecision:

Indecision means: the inability to make decisions quickly : a wavering between two or more possible courses of action.

Indecision is paralyzing, and our decisions do determine our destiny. So, we had better make the right ones. There is so much pressure that every decision seems to be life or death. It’s just not true. Sure, some decisions are more important than others, and we won’t get them all right. When we blow it, we are to learn from it and grow. But we have to make decisions every day, and the worst place, most frustrating place, to be is in the place of indecision.

Decision:

So, what are we to do? Firstly, let’s realize as Christians we have the word of God to help lead and guide us, to go to for direction. It is our map to lead us to the right path. It will help us make decisions. Secondly, don’t attempt to make a lot of decisions at once. Deal with one thing at a time and begin limiting your options. This will help you make decisions.

Along with the Bible, believing it enough to do it, act on it, will always be the best guide in making sound decisions — decisions that will bless us.

Just a thought,

PSS

At some point in our lives, we will all have to deal with disappointment. Disappointment is defined as: sadness or displeasure caused by the nonfulfillment of one’s hopes or expectations : unhappiness from the failure of something hoped for or expected to happen.

Low expectations:

At times, if we are not careful when we experience disappointment, we will be tempted to lower our expectations. People might even tell you that you need to lower your expectations, or that you expect too much. This is not a solution: it’s just an avoidance technique. There are better ways of dealing with it.

Unreal expectations:

In a day and age when we expect things to happen fast, we are seeing more and more people dealing with disappointment. Sometimes people do set unrealistic goals that cannot be met. Then there is disappointment that comes from unspoken expectations. We expect someone to do something that we have never spoken about.

Managing disappointment:

There are times when we set ourselves up for disappointment. No matter how it comes, we need to manage this emotion of disappointment. We can do this by having a backup plan if whatever we desire to happen does not happen. We can also realize that failure is not permanent, and that not everything will work out in our timing. We need to learn from our failures and grow from them. So, don’t allow setbacks to keep you from your dreams and desires.

We can overcome disappointment with faith — believing God’s word is true, and that all things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.

Just a thought,

PSS

Humility is a life extender:

1. Healthy perspective — This can help you face difficult truths about weaknesses in your life, identify and build on strengths, and force growth and change.
2. Understanding Who really did it — James 1:17a: Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father.

3. Mention others often — If life is only about us, it becomes very self-serving. We need to serve others.
4. Invest in others — When you help others, God will help you.
5. Love makes you relevant. Always put the word of God first.
6. Integrity is the key — Keep your word.
7. Take your eyes off the scoreboard — Keep serving, no matter what.
8. Yield to the Holy Spirit — He is our teacher; He leads and guides us; He comforts us; He knows exactly what we should do.

Let’s all work on yielding and obeying God and His word. He gives grace to the humble.

Just A thought,

PSS

As our society gets more and more secular (anti-God), we as Christians must develop and maintain our Christian worldview. That means those whom we support politically, or in our everyday life, must be weighed against the word of God.

The foundation:

How unfortunate in this culture that we will be forced to vote for people who are the most closely aligned with our Bible — the word of God. The First Amendment of the constitution is the foundation for all the amendments to our constitution. The two most important principles are freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Without these two, the constitution will fall apart. The government is telling us what we should believe and what we are allowed to say. If we don’t put our Christianity first in every area of our lives, we will lose our rights.

The indoctrination:

If you really believe in the Bible and in the Lord Jesus, you could never support or approve of a socialist. We can see today many, not all, people want things for free. Nothing is free: somebody will always have to pay. Socialism is contrary to biblical principles. I have said it many times, The public-school systems are indoctrinating our children. What they should be doing is educating and teaching them about the greatness of America and the constitution and what the republic means. 

The investigation:

Let’s begin to put the word of God first. Let’s weigh everything against the word of God. If it is not in line with the word of God, we must reject it or them, and allow God to truly lead us. I’m concerned for the Church and people who claim to believe the word of God and claim to obey Him, but yet follow the ways of the world and support people who are against our faith. We will know them by their fruit — their actions, not their words.

The liberation:

William Booth wrote in the late 1800’s: “The chief danger that confronts the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, heaven without hell.” It’s happening today; we are witnessing this right now. Let’s allow God to lead our lives. Let’s put Him first in every area of our lives!

Just a thought,

PSS