I Choose

Morning coffee time earlier today brought me confirmation of the importance to keep my thoughts and heart on things that make me happy. I don’t ever want to go back to focusing on my afflictions, my situation, or the cards I have been dealt, but rather I want to focus on what makes my heart glad.  How life changing our thoughts can be!  

I am going to paraphrase from several translations and add my interpretation of Proverbs 15:15.

If we are not careful about where we keep our thoughts when we are experiencing affliction, hard times, and dark circumstances, we will only bring trouble to ourselves if we keep our minds on those miserable circumstances. It can appear to us in our hearts and minds that nothing good is ever going to happen to us and more bad things are probably waiting just around the corner.  Our hearts are miserable and a miserable heart means a miserable life.   Our days can even feel evil in our minds because of all of our anxious and foreboding thoughts.  We keep thinking that something bad is going to happen….again…if something so terrible can happen once, it can happen again – “so I might as well stay ready and looking for it this time.”  Every day will bring trouble when we approach life in this manner. 

This kind of person not only feels despondent, but their bodies show despondency.  They show discouragement, dejection, or depression. They walk with their low spirits, willingly embracing them, from loss of hope and courage.  They feel a deep dejection because they think that any effort or resistance is useless on their part…. so they simply live with an acceptance and resignation that this is the way life is going to be for them.  Why fight it?

I choose to fight it.

I choose not to dwell on my circumstances.  I choose to cast off my afflictions.  I choose to see only good in my future. I choose living in the present and looking to the future.  I choose courage.  I choose hope.  I choose to fight the good fight.  I choose the happy heart. I choose the glad heart. I choose the cheerful heart.  If I can have this kind of heart each day, in spite of and regardless of my circumstances, I will have a continual feast.  I will have a life that gives me an unusual and abundant amount of enjoyment.  An elaborate and abundant life.  A life that is filled with songs, a melody of happiness in my heart.  Why would I not choose my life to be like a continual feast?

Life is a choice. How you are going to live it each day is your choice.

I choose to keep my eyes straight ahead, not even looking down at where I am presently standing, but looking ahead. Simply one or two steps ahead are all it takes to keep moving forward and to see the potential life there is to be lived.  There is a purpose to my past, my present, and my future, and God has a plan on how it is all going to work together for my good.  I choose life with abundant enjoyment.  I choose to trust in that plan and believe for the best.  I choose a happy heart.