Life is...

A friend of mine posted this picture on Facebook this morning: 

Let's all just take a second and think about this....

So often, people refuse to take responsibility for their own lives. Sometimes this comes in the form of blaming others for your mistakes. Sometimes, and perhaps even more often, it comes in the form of simply not appreciating the great power we have over ourselves. 

Can we control the way other people treat us? 

Can we control whether or not we become victims of crime or other mistreatment?

Can we control the way people speak to us? 

Can we really control anything at all, aside from our own thoughts and behavior?

More often than not, the answer to those questions is "no". I can't control any of those things. And sometimes that really sucks, because let's be honest, people can be really awful, and to be on the receiving end of any of that is just plain crappy. 

But what I CAN control - and here's the best part - is how that treatment affects me. I can let it ruin me, or I can let it make me. I don't have to break under the pressure of the way other people behave. I have the freedom to stand strong, to turn the frustration of being mistreated into something awesome, just because I want to. 

I am often guilty of underestimating the power of my brain when it comes to this kind of stuff, of underestimating the power of both positive and negative mental processes. But I have discovered that when I am conscious of what I'm thinking about, and I am intentional about being positive, about finding the good in every person and situation, and in ignoring negativity, then I am a happier person, as whole. 

And happy people don't kill their husbands. They just don't. 

I'm sure at some point, everyone has seen or heard the Charles Swindoll quote, "Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it." 

I'm feeling a bit convicted about that today. It's so easy for me to whine and complain, to focus on the negative - why is this happening to me, why doesn't anything ever go as planned, why me, why me, why me - instead of setting my sights on the positive things, and intentionally turning crappy situations into good ones because of how I react to them. 

So I am making a commitment: I will be intentional in my thought processes. I will purposefully choose to be positive, to let my thoughts make my life something incredible. I will be thankful for the gift I have been given, the gift of being able to breathe, love, think, dream, create, write, read, get older, and just LIVE. 

Who's with me?