Sideways

Happy Monday!

I hope you had a restful weekend and are feeling refreshed for the week ahead!

I don’t know about you, but February was one heck of a challenging month! Every time I thought I had a handle on things, there would be an obstacle, I’d miss something, or there was just so much to do that I felt I wasn’t on top of things. If you didn’t experience anything similar last month, I feel reasonably confident in the notion that you’ve felt the same or similar pangs at some point in your life.

The worst part is when we have seasons where things seem to be working against us, we often assume so much more of the responsibility than belongs to us. Perhaps I’m alone in this, but adversity can be a downward spiral that makes us feel out-of-control, helpless, and hopeless if we give over to the cycle. We agree with negative messaging from our past and begin to complicate matters with defeatist thoughts. Ultimately, when we continue in this vein, we lose track of the positive elements and wind up exhausted and depressed.

So, here’s the good news! It’s in the adversity of life when everything seems to be going sideways that we have the most potential for growth. We can choose to face the challenges squarely and refuse to fall prey to the negativity. We can allow our character to build and be strengthen by a greater understanding of how we operate and our particular bent in situations of complexity. We can seek to understand the reasons we default to destructive responses.

And, we can choose to learn to exchange our flawed reasoning in favor of self-compassion. In this way, we can address the unhealthy patterns and redirect our efforts to constructing a foundation of self-acceptance. The change will facilitate new ideas, creativity, and increase our perspective and worldview, moving us into new areas of opportunity and feeding our minds with optimism and encouragement.

There’s a fabulous reflection by James in Scripture that helps us to gain an understanding of the value of hardship and adversity.

“My fellow believers, when it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties see it as an invaluable opportunity to experience the greatest joy that you can!For you know that when your faith is tested it stirs up power within you to endure all things. And then as your endurance grows even stronger it will release perfection into every part of your being until there is nothing missing and nothing lacking. And if anyone longs to be wise, ask God for wisdom and he will give it! He won’t see your lack of wisdom as an opportunity to scold you over your failures but he will overwhelm your failures with his generous grace.^”

James 1:2-5 (TPT)

Find joy in the adversity or hardship this week, knowing that you will experience valuable growth and insight!

Be Well & Be Blessed!

Lucinda