The Power of Being Positive

Over the holidays, I read a book that changed my life.

Change Your Words, Change Your Life by Joyce Meyer, more than lives up to its title. It came along at the perfect time for me, too. I'd just prayed about and determined the word I would focus on for 2013: Dream (you can read about it HERE), but the dregs of a year-long case of the blues still lingered. It's hard to get out of a funk!

Ms. Meyer's book convicted me from the opening chapters. I saw how negative I'd been, how much easier it was to slip into well-I-guess-this-is-it mentality than to push beyond that.

**For the record, the only thing I was really down about last year was my lack of forward progress in publishing. The most important part of my life--my family--was chugging along fine, and I've never taken that for granted.**

Anyway, I'd purchased a small notebook when I was Christmas shopping. It had a cardinal on the cover, and cardinals have been a symbol of hope for me for about three years. I slipped it in my purse to jot down any random thing that I felt like recording, but I also used it to write key points from Change Your Words, Change Your Life.

One of my favorite bits of advice is to constantly affirm statements of power. The book contains about fifty or sixty of them, and they were all backed up with Bible passages. God expects us to have spirits of power and to put our full trust in Him. We were not designed to have spirits of timidity or weakness. By meditating on and speaking positive passages about our lives, we can loosen the binds of insecurity so prevalent in our lives.

I've come back to several affirmations again and again, and every time I read them, I get a peaceful feeling, like why was I worrying? God's got this!

Satan likes to poke at our sore  points. He knows exactly what to do to throw us into a fearful frame of mind, and this can result in inappropriate anger, arguments or self-punishment. One such sore point was poked this weekend, and I reacted as normal--getting mad then worrying. After a long walk in which two Bible passages repeated over and over, God helped me realize the sore point was completely untrue. I was able to head back home and diffuse the situation.

I wouldn't have been able to do that six months ago.

It's strange too, but I've been focusing on ten Bible passages about being strong in God, having an abundance of Godly friendships, and being content right now. And guess what? These things are snowballing in my life.

We all have hard times. Sometimes these hard times last a long, long time. The circumstances in my life have not changed--but my attitude has. And that's made all the difference.

Interested in Joyce's book? Here's my Goodreads review, http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13528467-change-your-words-change-your-life, links to purchase it are in the upper left corner of the page.

How do you stay positive?

Have a wonderful Monday!

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