By Denise Renée Purdie
So … following on with my last blog post about hoping I'll have my second renaissance, which I almost didn’t release as I didn’t know if it was too personal, I was chatting with a friend of mine about how a positive mindset can affect you. Some things we have very little control over, but I do feel like we can reframe and retrain our minds to think of seemingly negative things in the positive. Scripture says that … all things work together for our good for those who are called according to our purpose and love Jesus. That’s a paraphrase but essentially that’s it. I’ll put the real scripture in …
Romans 8:28 KJV
[28] And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Well, I was close! Oop!
But back to what I was saying, I had some pastor friends who used to say that all the time, and I admit I just kind of looked at them like there are some things I am not thankful for. And of course there are things that I wish had happened differently, but at the end of the day I have to trust God.
Let’s face it though, my closest people passing, especially my Mom and my Granny, were / are a “hard pill to swallow.” While I still miss them and will miss them until I get to see them again in glory, if they really wanted to go on to see their people, I would rather take the sorrow than for them to suffer for decades. I miss my Mom like the other half of me as we really grew up together since she was a young Mom, but I would not have wanted her to endure any of the pain that I am enduring as I know that she felt the same way about her Mom.
I say all this to say that I really am trying to reframe some of the painful and aggravating situations in my life as opportunities for growth, opportunities to challenge myself to do something even bigger and better than I’ve already done, opportunities to consider things that I never would’ve considered.
For example, I never really considered working on a cruise ship so I’m considering it now. I never considered working as a nanny overseas but I’m considering it. You really never know what the next leg of your life is going to be, but while it is uncertain and scary and all that jazz, it’s also exciting!
I just hope that I will continue with the motto that has gotten me this far, “nothing ventured, nothing gained!!!” Sometimes when you consider doing something out of the ordinary, that will really unlock the extraordinary in you.
Keywords: new beginnings, opportunities, mindset