1-34pm
My friend Heidi and I were talking the other day about how sometimes we think we are a victim whereas we are a volunteer. Let me explain what I mean.
Think about ill health. We go overboard on something – food, is a simple common example. We gain a huge amount of weight and become a ‘victim‘ of obesity. NO!!! We’re a volunteer. No one pinned us down and forced the food down our throats. Now I know some obesity is caused by an underlying medical condition, but most obesity is self-inflicted.
I was reading a few stories online of emotional abuse. This young girl wrote to a psycho-therapist saying how in love with her boyfriend she is, so much so that she can’t live without him. Meanwhile he treats her like dirt. She feels she is a victim of some of his abuse, but she chooses to stay with him, making her a volunteer.
The interview I aired this morning…
Lorraine was the victim of a brutal attack and the topic of yesterday’s blog. But she has not stayed a victim. She has moved onto really trying to use this terrible tragedy to glorify God and at the age of 77 believes Jesus is in the process of using her in a way far greater than ever before. She’s no victim now.
Look at the ‘patterns’ in your life. Certain things happen over and over again. You could be a victim of disease, in and out of hospital, constantly struggling with health issues that never seem to end. For some people, their lifestyle -mainly eating unhealthily & no exercise (they can’t exercise because they are victims of sickness & it prevents them from exercising) is what causes their ill-health. They actually are volunteers of their poor lifestyle. They have made bad choices and volunteered to continue. The great news, is that you can change! You can opt out of the bad choices and start looking at what is good and healthy and helpful to your life and body and not what is bad and unhealthy and unhelpful.
Focus on what contributes to your health & well-being and not on what contaminates it. Ditch that which is toxic in your life, be it people, or excess food or alcohol or drugs. All those things for which you have ‘volunteered‘ your life. Only you can choose for you and only I can choose for me.
Don’t choose to dwell on your failures. Don’t choose to live in the past. Don’t choose to not get over a bad event. Don’t choose to carry on over-eating. Don’t choose to carry on drinking. Don’t choose to carry on smoking. Don’t choose to carry on doing drugs. Don’t choose to carry on not exercising. Don’t choose to not forgive. Don’t choose to think negatively. Don’t choose to hate your life. Don’t choose to only think of yourself. Don’t choose to always want more. Don’t choose to dwell on past abuse. Don’t choose to not seek help. Don’t choose to not work on contentment. Don’t choose to not go to church. Don’t choose to not pray. Don’t choose to not read the Bible. Don’t choose to not believe in Jesus Christ.
Now I know that there are people who have faced an awful lot. Their lives have been fraught with issues….tragedy, ill health that is completely not their fault, really bad childhoods, dysfunctional parents and dreadful circumstances. I feel for you. I am not lacking in sympathy. But I am saying that each day, each moment, in fact, choices are made that will impact the next minutes/hours of how you feel this day. Choose to think positively. Choose to pray as you go. Choose to seek help if it all gets too much.
We are making a lot more choices than meet the eye. We need to get our act together and write down some goals and start choosing wisely. Time is going to run out. We cannot choose the date God has set for us to leave this world. We may as well make as many right choices as we possibly can, so we can enjoy the years God has set for us to be on this big blue planet.
1 Corinthians 15:57: But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(Thanks Miranda for posting these pics on your facebook page – you chose well!)
One more, this time from Joyful Toons…
God bless you.
In His firm, loving grip,
Helga xx 🙂
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