Choose to live your live with a positive attitude
"I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life."
- Deuteronomy 30:19 (NIV)
"Life is what you make it," was something my father used to say.
Sometimes when I was bored or wanted to sulk in self-pity over my problems, he would give me that advice. Many times I just wanted to reply, "That's your opinion," and go on sulking.
However, I have discovered that what my father said it true. As a matter of fact, our heavenly father gives us the same advice. He gave us free will and a right to choose.
We can choose a good attitude. Sometimes we have multiple issues that are weighing heavy on our hearts, some of which may be serious. But we can choose to find some bright spots to relieve our troubled minds and motivate us to make something better come from the circumstances surrounding us. We can choose to live with passion, or we can choose to live depressed.
We can choose to ask God for help. The Scriptures explain that sometimes we don't receive help because we don't ask. We should examine if we have asked him to help us make right choices and to remain joyful. He is always ready and waiting for us to ask.
We can make the choice to accept ourselves for the person God created us to be rather than continually going over our deficits and shortcomings. We all need to make improvements and repent for our sins, but we can't continually beat ourselves up over them.
We can choose to be content with what we have and take good care of it. This makes us good stewards over what God has given us. If he sees we desire to take care of what we have, he can delight in giving us more.
We can choose to achieve. Keeping a desire alive for self-improvement is a good step in making our lives better. In this day and age, with libraries, Internet access, and learning channels, we have a wealth of knowledge at our fingertips.
God tells us he gave us the ability to create wealth. We can enrich our attitudes and gain skill and talent though knowledge and hard work.
God wants us to have a good life and points out we have the right to choose. Since life is what we choose to make it, why not make the choice to take some steps to cultivate a better one.
• Annettee Budzban is a Christian author, speaker, life coach and nurse. She is speaking on Find and Fulfill your Purpose Friday, April 8, at 6 p.m. at Panera Bread in Round Lake Beach. Annettee can be contacted at Annetteebudzban@aol.com or (847) 543-8413.