Attitude of Gratitude
I haven't felt sad for quite a while, but I'm feeling pretty sad today. The downward emotional spiral started last Thursday as a feeling of mild irritation. Then regrets and frustrations started sweeping in and out like the tide. This morning regrets were especially painful. The first thing I thought about this morning was how to get unpleasant feelings to stop. Self talk? A visit to Starbucks? Vitamin B? Remedy low blood sugar? Walking? Nothing worked. So I plugged on through a job related meeting, tried to appear chipper and then drove home in a funk. The hypnotic aspect of driving a straight 45 minutes at 45 mph gave me time to relax into my dusky thoughts until I finally realized I didn't need to be trapped in this darkening state of mind. A healthy solution might be to find the good aspects in what I was experiencing. I decided to praise God for what he has provided recently and continues to teach me this week.
For instance...where is my gladness and praise to God for directly answering my prayers this week about financial need? I prayed for his help last week and Saturday I received an unexpected check for a sizable sum in the mail. Financial problems entirely solved. A miraculous answer to prayer? Yes! It's not the first time this has happened. Thank you God for providing exactly what I need.
What else can I praise God for today? God, you help me...
- see emotional pain as a positive experience, something to explore and a sign of inner change and healing.
- understand my regrets are part of an ongoing grieving process and things I need to process in order to let go of the past and move on to do God's work while on earth.
-accept and explore my frustrations, open my heart to my emotions, and practice compassion for self and others.
-surrender to God's will and allow His will, and not my fears, to become my source of forward momentum.
-see my recent, self-limiting thoughts about age and death as an illusory, self-created shroud God enables me to move beyond as I embrace eternal Life in and through Christ.
-actively and joyfully explore life, stay emotionally, mentally and physically flexible and use the healthy body God gave me to express his glory and explore his creation without self-imposed limitations and fear of failure and loss?
Is all this thinking practical? Yes. Is a change of heart, mind and lifestyle possible? Yes. Everything is possible with God.
God, thank you for waking me up when I start backseat driving or fearfully grab the wheel of my patched up little truckish self and try to steer myself down the highway of life. Help me let you take back the wheel, accept the gift of your peace and protection and just relax and enjoy the ride.
To round out a revealing day the movie "Oh, Brother Where Art Thou?" was on T.V. tonight. I consider OBWAT a brilliant movie and I enjoy the great performances by both actors and musicians. What a cool sound track! I hadn't seen the movie for a few years and this time I was struck by the spiritual issues the movie explores. Clooney's character is the rational foil to the other two character's innocence, intuition and spiritual "superstition". But in the end he too falls on his knees and asks God to save him from a lynch mob. Immediately after he prays, the valley is flooded and the four fugitives escape death. When the other two bring up their belief God's hand is guiding their fate, Clooney's character says there is a rational explanation for the flood. He argues the flood wasn't an answer to prayer because the local electric company was planning to flood that valley that day anyway. As he continues to discount their belief they all suddenly see a cow on the top of a flooded shed. This is the fulfillment of a prophecy given by an "oracle", the blind railway worker they meet at the beginning of the movie. Rational Mind vs. Spiritual Intuition. What a clear example of man's tendency to deny the answers and daily miracles God patiently and lovingly provides.
How can I judge those who would build a golden calf in the presence of God?
For instance...where is my gladness and praise to God for directly answering my prayers this week about financial need? I prayed for his help last week and Saturday I received an unexpected check for a sizable sum in the mail. Financial problems entirely solved. A miraculous answer to prayer? Yes! It's not the first time this has happened. Thank you God for providing exactly what I need.
What else can I praise God for today? God, you help me...
- see emotional pain as a positive experience, something to explore and a sign of inner change and healing.
- understand my regrets are part of an ongoing grieving process and things I need to process in order to let go of the past and move on to do God's work while on earth.
-accept and explore my frustrations, open my heart to my emotions, and practice compassion for self and others.
-surrender to God's will and allow His will, and not my fears, to become my source of forward momentum.
-see my recent, self-limiting thoughts about age and death as an illusory, self-created shroud God enables me to move beyond as I embrace eternal Life in and through Christ.
-actively and joyfully explore life, stay emotionally, mentally and physically flexible and use the healthy body God gave me to express his glory and explore his creation without self-imposed limitations and fear of failure and loss?
Is all this thinking practical? Yes. Is a change of heart, mind and lifestyle possible? Yes. Everything is possible with God.
God, thank you for waking me up when I start backseat driving or fearfully grab the wheel of my patched up little truckish self and try to steer myself down the highway of life. Help me let you take back the wheel, accept the gift of your peace and protection and just relax and enjoy the ride.
To round out a revealing day the movie "Oh, Brother Where Art Thou?" was on T.V. tonight. I consider OBWAT a brilliant movie and I enjoy the great performances by both actors and musicians. What a cool sound track! I hadn't seen the movie for a few years and this time I was struck by the spiritual issues the movie explores. Clooney's character is the rational foil to the other two character's innocence, intuition and spiritual "superstition". But in the end he too falls on his knees and asks God to save him from a lynch mob. Immediately after he prays, the valley is flooded and the four fugitives escape death. When the other two bring up their belief God's hand is guiding their fate, Clooney's character says there is a rational explanation for the flood. He argues the flood wasn't an answer to prayer because the local electric company was planning to flood that valley that day anyway. As he continues to discount their belief they all suddenly see a cow on the top of a flooded shed. This is the fulfillment of a prophecy given by an "oracle", the blind railway worker they meet at the beginning of the movie. Rational Mind vs. Spiritual Intuition. What a clear example of man's tendency to deny the answers and daily miracles God patiently and lovingly provides.
How can I judge those who would build a golden calf in the presence of God?
Labels: Contemplation, Ruminations
posted by Michelle Coder | 1:32 PM
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