true joy
ever since the new year i have felt a conviction to recognize all of the things that i can control and all of the things i cannot.
as a human being, it is easy to blame the way you act, react, believe, feel, and multiple other things on the circumstance that you are placed in. if things are going good, you are more likely to be happy and have a good attitude. if things are going bad, you are more likely to be upset and have a bad attitude. this is something we all recognize - old news, bekah, we know this already.
but what we don't take a lot of time to recognize is that it is not the circumstances surrounding a situation that decide how we feel, it is our own conscience.
when something good happens, you have the choice to be prideful or humble.
when something bad happens, you have the choice to be defeated or determined.
when something sad happens, you have the choice to be sorrowful or steadfast.
human life is all about the choices we make. no matter what happens, we ultimately have the choice to receive it in a positive or a negative light.
you say, "yeah, i know," but you let yourself be put down over the smallest things. i do it, too.
back to the start of the new year. i never have liked the term "new years resolution." i feel like that gives me an excuse to cop out because no one is ever expected to keep up with their new years resolutions; few people do.
the last few months of 2017 leading up to 2018 were hard for me. i suffer from seasonal affective disorder (otherwise known as seasonal depression, but i prefer not to call it that) which makes the cold months hard for me in general, and on top of that things just weren't working out in my favor:
my first semester of actual college didn't yield many real friends
my boyfriend and i were having some communication issues
my grades weren't as good as i hoped they would be (but they weren't bad by any means)
my work environment was (and is) toxic but i can't find a job that seems any better
i gave myself all of these excuses as to why i was letting myself feel down. i didn't take responsibility for my own feelings and instead let everything and everyone around me decide how i was going to feel. this is a totally human reaction to things, but it's truly ridiculous when you think about it.
there's a man i know named John Stewart. i wrote about him in a blog a couple months back called "a letter to my younger self." John has been a huge influence in my life, especially over the last three or four years.
Here is the most important thing John Stewart taught me without even knowing that he was teaching it to me: if you have God, you have everything.
now, it isn't my job to share John's testimony with you but i do think you should know this: John went through a time in his life where everything was stripped from him. he was doing everything he could to make ends meet for his children. sounds sad, maybe even miserable, right?
John Stewart didn't see it that way. he did recognize that he was stuck in less than ideal circumstances but that never stopped him from loving and serving God. there was a time when all John had was God and he was perfectly content. he had everything taken away from him but still lived with the most genuine smile on his face because, more truthfully than anything i've experienced, he knew that God was all he needed.
John is doing a lot better now, is married to the woman of his dreams, runs his own company, and still loves his life. but even if he had nothing that he has now, i am confident that John would still be faithful and filled with joy because he places his happiness and his worth and his joy in the only right thing: God.
thanks to God, i met John; and thanks to John, i have began to scrape the surface of what it means to have true joy. instead of expecting things from people i accept them. instead of letting a bad day get me down, i recognize that the only way to recognize that it's a bad day is to know what a good day is like. instead of feeling like no one loves me, i reach out to those who have extended their hand in the good times and the bad.
I love you, John. thank you for being everything that you are, even the things you don't know you are.
as a human being, it is easy to blame the way you act, react, believe, feel, and multiple other things on the circumstance that you are placed in. if things are going good, you are more likely to be happy and have a good attitude. if things are going bad, you are more likely to be upset and have a bad attitude. this is something we all recognize - old news, bekah, we know this already.
but what we don't take a lot of time to recognize is that it is not the circumstances surrounding a situation that decide how we feel, it is our own conscience.
when something good happens, you have the choice to be prideful or humble.
when something bad happens, you have the choice to be defeated or determined.
when something sad happens, you have the choice to be sorrowful or steadfast.
human life is all about the choices we make. no matter what happens, we ultimately have the choice to receive it in a positive or a negative light.
you say, "yeah, i know," but you let yourself be put down over the smallest things. i do it, too.
back to the start of the new year. i never have liked the term "new years resolution." i feel like that gives me an excuse to cop out because no one is ever expected to keep up with their new years resolutions; few people do.
the last few months of 2017 leading up to 2018 were hard for me. i suffer from seasonal affective disorder (otherwise known as seasonal depression, but i prefer not to call it that) which makes the cold months hard for me in general, and on top of that things just weren't working out in my favor:
my first semester of actual college didn't yield many real friends
my boyfriend and i were having some communication issues
my grades weren't as good as i hoped they would be (but they weren't bad by any means)
my work environment was (and is) toxic but i can't find a job that seems any better
i gave myself all of these excuses as to why i was letting myself feel down. i didn't take responsibility for my own feelings and instead let everything and everyone around me decide how i was going to feel. this is a totally human reaction to things, but it's truly ridiculous when you think about it.
there's a man i know named John Stewart. i wrote about him in a blog a couple months back called "a letter to my younger self." John has been a huge influence in my life, especially over the last three or four years.
Here is the most important thing John Stewart taught me without even knowing that he was teaching it to me: if you have God, you have everything.
now, it isn't my job to share John's testimony with you but i do think you should know this: John went through a time in his life where everything was stripped from him. he was doing everything he could to make ends meet for his children. sounds sad, maybe even miserable, right?
John Stewart didn't see it that way. he did recognize that he was stuck in less than ideal circumstances but that never stopped him from loving and serving God. there was a time when all John had was God and he was perfectly content. he had everything taken away from him but still lived with the most genuine smile on his face because, more truthfully than anything i've experienced, he knew that God was all he needed.
John is doing a lot better now, is married to the woman of his dreams, runs his own company, and still loves his life. but even if he had nothing that he has now, i am confident that John would still be faithful and filled with joy because he places his happiness and his worth and his joy in the only right thing: God.
thanks to God, i met John; and thanks to John, i have began to scrape the surface of what it means to have true joy. instead of expecting things from people i accept them. instead of letting a bad day get me down, i recognize that the only way to recognize that it's a bad day is to know what a good day is like. instead of feeling like no one loves me, i reach out to those who have extended their hand in the good times and the bad.
I love you, John. thank you for being everything that you are, even the things you don't know you are.
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