The last week of June and the first week of July were rather terrible. Ugh. Sick children, and other immediate family stuff. People doing illegal fireworks behind our apartments,keeping my daughter up at night. It has caused me to be in a grumpy mood
I have been thinking lately – ok more like, all the time – about my attitude, and my demeanor, and why I’m prone to being grumpy, or prone to being negative. even when circumstances are fine. I feel happy sometimes on the inside, but it doesn’t appear like I’m happy? I don’t know what that’s all about. But I have discovered one thing, I think.
I am not nearly so much a leader as I thought, or as people seem to think. Yes, I like to lead, I like to be in charge and come up with ideas, I like to take charge and get stuff done. But I also enjoy being a follower.
Now, that isn’t a bad thing. This simply means, I like to serve others. This also means I am highly influenced by others around me – people, music, TV, the things I read, all easily influence my mood.
The funniest part of all of this, is that the only thing that never seems to waiver is my relationship with and faith in God. WEIRD!
All of this pondering made me think of two things:
1: Philippians 4:8 (sorry for the misspellings in the graphic lol)
2: Every Good Thing: The Afters
In a little Behind the Music segment on the radio, the band discussed the reason they wrote this song was because, there is so many negative things happening in the world, and the media and people in general often dwell on the negative instead of the positive. So this song they hope, serves as a reminder to think about the positive things in life. That every good thing comes from God. The lyrics talk about how we shouldn’t waste time and take life for granted.
Over the past week, the violence and the political upheaval that is going on in the US has weighed me down. I am overwhelmed by the hatred on BOTH sides. Hatred toward police, hatred toward the president and people in power, hatred toward the presidential nominees…then the violence against the police. Here in Cali, there were several officer-involved shootings within the span of a few days. People blame the President (ludicrous)
Sometimes I wish people would just all shut up and get along. Love like Jesus loved. I have been trying harder over this last year to practice not arguing and getting angry with people, and I have been trying to be positive instead of negative. There are times when it’s appropriate to argue, but as certain family members have explained numerous times, no one really ever changes their mind about politics when you argue with them and try to prove your point. Political ideologies can only change internally, and it takes a long time and a lot of research and pondering and thinking for people to change their minds, and all of my ranting, or other peoples’ rantings are very unlikely to elicit any real change.
Wow I’ve rambled on long enough. ANYWHO…
Some positive things that have happened since the beginning of July:
#1 I received my beta readers comments back for my first book. YEY!
#2 Cover reveal and synopsis for A Time To Rise came out! You can check out my Cover reveal and Giveaway post HERE. Actually, I was more excited to have read the synopsis which was AWESOME!
#3 We spent time with friends for the fourth of July, and my daughter sat through almost the whole aerial fireworks display (she was afraid, but she didn’t go back in the car, so that was nice)
#4 We’re going camping this week with my parents. This will be the first time that either one of my girls has gone camping. Real camping with tents and campfires! Ok and a small tent trailer…
What positive things have been happening in your life? Let me know in the comments?
Comments
2 responses to “Positive happenings #6: Bible verses, politics, music”
If only everyone would love like Jesus loved! That would solve many
problems, wouldn’t it.
I’m way behind on reading people’s blogs, so almost a whole week has passed since you posted this 😛 Hope this week has been a good one as well. These posts always remind me to look for the positive things in life. It’s hard to do with all the negativity going around. But I’m grateful for loved ones in my life who support me. And I’m grateful for friends like you 🙂
I have been feeling the same way lately. Sooooo much negativity, so much hate. So much anger. People are basically proclaiming guilt instead of looking at facts or waiting for the courts to decide. The media is a huge contributor of this negative enviornment. I am not great at being positive, but I try and I’m glad it is helping other people try too 🙂