Attitude

How incredibly fortunate we are. This statement has a lot of responses anyone could say 'fortunate...what are you talking about?' and yet someone else could look at that same person's life and say 'how could they ever be sad?'

I would never say that anyone's life is without struggles that are difficult to bear I just want to focus on how to cope, what to spend time thinking about, that changes a mood and changes behavior.

I have often struggled with obsessing over the things that make my life difficult and make me anxious. It has helped me to take those thoughts and deal with them and move on. For instance with my sister passing away I was unable to cope with the anxiety of her children being without a mother and finally one day I had to face this and ask God what to do and it was a process of healing that is still going on now. Some of the things that God showed me that helped me in this healing were hard to learn and I still am learning them 

But the most effective thing that has helped me through this struggle has been my attitude and perspective. Phil. 4:8 is a mainstay in my thinking and with God's help I try to apply it when my thoughts run toward difficult things, not that I don't deal with those difficult things but that I choose what I think about and I choose not to obsess.