bitterness |

Living as a Victim or Overcomer

Posted on October 3, 2014 by fivesonsplusone

“You don’t know where I’ve been unless you’ve walked in my shoes!” This is absolutely a legitimate sentence, but if that becomes the focus of your life, then you have a problem. I see so many people that live with this victim mentality. We have all walked through terrible situations during our lifetime, some worse than others. We see people on the news every day that have fought evil for up to decades and have managed to overcome and live their lives to the best of their ability. How do we survive these things? That is one of the problems; the word ‘survive’. God has not merely called us to be survivors, but to be overcomers. We are called to rise above our circumstances and learn from our past, but not live in our past.

I know a woman that has multiple daily posts on her social media site that talks about how she has been to hell and back. She posts about unforgiveness and bitterness and how they can destroy you, but lives in a constant state of unforgiveness and bitterness. She has developed a victim mentality. She is always a victim. She is not an overcomer. She may have gone through the fire, but not only did she get burned then, she still lives there. Life has moved on all around her, yet she won’t let leave this camp.

The bible tells us how we walk through the valley of the shadow of death and how we should fear no evil, yet people seem to skip over the word through. Let us not camp out in the valley, but let us continue through it where we climb the mountain to our destiny. Let us not live our lives as victims, but men and women of God who have overcome every bad circumstance in our lives.

I want to be known as an overcomer. I want people to look at me and see what I have become and not where I have been. It is good to remember where we came from, but never ever live there. Move forward. Be who God called you to be.

Love Like Children

Posted on March 17, 2014 by fivesonsplusone

I am tough on myself. I wish I wasn’t. I find myself at the end of each day, planning on doing better the next day; being better. I end my day happy that I did some good, happy that my kids made it through the day still loving me, still believing I’m the best Mom in the world. Kids are so forgiving and so loving, so innocent and so resilient. I see my kids and understand how Jesus loved the children around Him and said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.”

As we turn from children into teenagers, young adults, adults, and finally elderly, we gain wisdom. As we get older though, we also gain hurts, distrust, cynicism, pessimism, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, among many other things. God did not intend for us to hold onto anything but the true definition of love in I Corinthians 13; withouth love, I have nothing, I gain nothing. My kids go to bed ever night still believing the best in me. They still love me and they easily forgive me.

It can be very difficult to change. I want to be more like my children. I want to go to bed every night believing the best in people and not assume the worst. I need to bless those who curse me. I want to believe that there is a possibility that I may not be seeing things clearly. I need to be ready to admit to myself that I am seeing the world through hurts and sacrifices that I never wanted. I need to be honest with others, but with myself more.

God’s mercies are new every morning. I need to wake up every day and believe that I can be more like my children. They are a great example of how God sees us. Children learn a lot from us. Let us not be so arrogant to think they are not in our lives so that we can learn from them. I love my sons more than I can even understand; more than I thought I ever could. I hope one day they can understand just how much they have given me, how much God has blessed me through them.