Ways God Is Using in My Life

Recently, I started doing a program online called MoodGYM. Its a cognitive behavioral therapy program to increase self-esteem by doing a series of work alongside surveys and a little but of journaling. I am finding MoodGYM to be helpful in pointing out areas in my thinking and reactions to others that are what they title "warped thinking." Warped thinking is the all or nothing belief, overgeneralization, mental filter, disqualifying the positive, jumping to conclusions, magnification or minimization, emotional reasoning, should statements, labeling and mislabeling, and, last of all, personalization.MoodGYM says, "the only way it knows to improve your self esteem is for you to believe in yourself. The judgment of others might lift you briefly, but it's really your own judgment of yourself that's important." It made me think of the Prayer for Serenity.

Prayer for Serenity


God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it;
Trusting that You will make all things right
If I surrender to Your will;
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You
Forever in the next.
AMEN.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

The part that stuck out to me the most was being in that mindful state that I can only change my person not someone else, hence be more accountable for my actions. If I am to love as Christ loved, then I ought to love others unconditionally in spite of what they do to me...even if that means afar for the time being. I have to honor them as Christ honors me each and every single day of my life after having paid for all of my sins and then some. My love should be contingent on whether or not a person does something for me or whether or not that person ought to be forgiving. I have to take this world as Jesus did and not as I would have it, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, and humbling myself to surrender my will for God's will for things in my life--even in the moments I feel I am justified to have this or that or deserve that much more. I am ultimately responsible for who I am in Christ. I am accountable for those persons God has blessed me with having, good and bad, and showing how God's love transformed my life and allowed me to live with a sense of peace, happiness, and rested assurance in my heavenly rewards rather those "rewards" here on earth. I am tired of worrying about what I do affecting others, and making myself personally responsible for their actions. Their response to who I am, my need to protect my son, or even my need to give myself and my son a healthy environment to live in isn't contingent on what they feel. It is contingent on the direction I have prayed over to my Lord and Savior. As a servant to the King of Most High, I am a witness of Christ's love for me, how His love transformed my life, and how in this moment I can share it with others for the glory of God....not mine. Oswald Chambers (the man who wrote, "His Utmost for His Highest.") said, “No man is the same after an agony; he is either better or worse, and the agony of a man’s experience is nearly always the first thing that opens his mind to understand the need of redemption worked out by Jesus Christ. At the back of the wall of the world stands God with His arms outstretched, and every man driven there is driven into the arms of God. The cross of Jesus is the supreme evidence of the love of God.” Living these moments I am blessed with is about sharing those moments I continually being driven back into the arms of God, and Him embracing me wholeheartedly because He desire a personal relationship for me with Him. So, praise God for shining His light in those dark areas of my light when I thought or believed no one saw or cared enough. He cares enough. He loves me so much. He desires good in my life, but this comes at a price of surrendering my will for Him, and then remembering that in the point of view of eternity how does this one moment I experience change God's favor for me. So, from a healthier spiritual spot in my life to you, I wish you a moment filled with peace, love, and happiness; instead of, the anxiety over what will happen later on tomorrow or even what hardship you might be experiencing today. God bless each and every one of you, and may the love of Christ Jesus shine down on you.

In the Spirit of Jesus' Love for All,
Melissa