But have you ever thought about giving thanks for the "bad" things that have happened? What! Thanks for the bad stuff? Never! I'm just happy it's over and done with. After all, some of those things nearly ruined my life, my relationship with..., wiped out my income. How can I possibly give thanks for those things? Give thanks when I was falsely accused? Are you kidding? Give thanks when someone close died? I don't think so!
Well, I have learned that when bad things happen we have two choices. We can moan and groan, cry over spilt milk, throw in the towel, have a pity party, rage and wail. Or we can realize that everything in life can teach us something if we will allow it. We can use it as a stepping stone to something higher and better, to positive change. We can learn and move on.
Last year the company I was building with changed their marketing plan. I lost just about everything I had worked for. I then researched other companies and made a choice. I'm not saying it was a bad choice. It's a great company with a superb product. But my timing was off through no fault of my own. I signed up just a few days before my mother died. I lost all momentum and, try as I might, could not get that business off the ground. Nothing seemed to work.
My finances were fast fleeing in every direction in an attempt to pay debts, to just live. My mother had been with me for nearly five years and had been helping with the expenses of rent and groceries as well as other incidentals. With her death her income also stopped. I seemed to be between a rock and a hard place. How would I live? How could I be grateful for this?
Well, I could see many ways in which I could be thankful, especially since I was thankful to the Lord, not to any other human, not to society, not to those who caused the bad stuff, for what happened. And in giving thanks to God, we receive His blessings. I can thank Him because He holds my life in His own hands and won't allow anything to happen that I can't handle. And He allows it so that His purpose for my life can be fulfilled.
I'm thankful that everything "bad" that happened last year spurred me on to something better. I was unwilling to quit, to be discouraged, to despair. I chose to walk on those things and allow them, like an elevator, to take me higher. And so I can say, "Thanks" for every one of those circumstances. Thanks for my mother's death? That's taking it a little too far, don't you think? Well, she was 97, had lost much of her hearing and her eyesight was getting worse. She was falling from time to time and when I wasn't able to be at home I worried that she might fall when I was out. She was sleeping longer and longer every day, and I would tiptoe into her bedroom every morning just to see if she was still breathing. So, as much as her sudden death a few days after a fall stunned me and changed so many things in my life, I can thank the Lord that she died in hospital and not at home. I can give thanks that she isn't in pain any more, that she isn't left out of conversations because she couldn't hear. And so on.
I'm thankful that my other businesses didn't work out because I would never have taken advantage of the opportunity I am now with that has brought more positive response in a shorter time than all my other businesses put together. I would have missed the health benefits of the product that I have been experiencing. Yes, I can be thankful for failure. As long as you don't live in an attitude of failure, every failure can bring you closer to the success you have been aiming at. Every failed attempt will be one less you have to experience before you are truly living your dream.
So yes, I'm thankful for all the good things in 2009: my family, my wonderful friends, my church, the love and support I get from my pastor and his wife, gifts I have received (especially the unexpected ones), my relationship with Jesus. But I'm also grateful for every "negative" experience. Always remember, a double negative makes a positive.
Be thankful for every experience.
Re-blog from Daily Journal for Success - 30 days of blogging - http://dailyjournalforsuccess.ning.com/profiles/blogs/be-grateful-for-every
thanks for the info .....
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