Changing perspective.

A joyful heart is good medicine, 

but a (negative) spirit dries up the bones.

Proverbs 17:22

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am so not a cup-half-full kind of girl. Which would then make me a cup-half-empty kind of girl, but really it's more like cup-dry-as-a-bone kind of girl. Have I lost you yet? 

Anyway, to get to my point, I've always struggled with extreme negativity in thought and attitude. I read a few blogs whose writers are so the opposite of me that I come away feeling like I've taken a peek into the workings of another world. I read them solely to remind myself that life is meant to be enjoyed. 

I somehow can't seem to pull myself out of the gritty minutiae of my every day life to kind of rise above and find the sweet smelling roses like other people do. I have never, ever, ever been one of those moms who runs to get the camera when her child spills something. This is something I will want to remember when I'm eighty so let's document the cuteness of that milk splatter! Me? I am probably bringing the cliche to life, crying (or screaming) while wiping it up with a soggy, stinky towel, praying for the day to be over already.

While I completely admire mothers who are generally positive about kids and home and life in general, I don't know how to get myself there. It is really hard, when you've lived your whole life thus far, looking through the lens of negativity, to then turn a switch and become a positive thinker. It really is not possible. The effort it takes for me to rethink what I'm thinking is just not on my radar in the day-to-day of life. 

I can literally spend a day thinking of all the bad things that could happen, all the bad things that have happened, and all the things that will most definitely happen and do. I told you so. 

In case you didn't know, negative people are exhausting. Just ask my husband. 

I know, though, that this is not how I am to be. Maybe I have a lot more work cut out for me than my positive thinking friends, since I have to redirect my whole personality and thought process, but I must try. For the sake of my family, I need to try and start thinking more positively about life. 

It is weighing me down and I have got to let go of it. I really hope none of you suffers with negativity. It is a really disheartening way to live. But if you are, here are a few things that I have found to be really helpful on my road to being positive:

1. Pray.

2. Read my Bible regularly.

3. Pray.

4. Only read books/watch movies with positive messages.

5. Pray.

6. Cutting out a lot of what I read in the news. I'm actually thinking of stopping reading the news altogether. The world is so depressing.

7. Pray some more. 

The following verses have helped too, in my ongoing quest:

"...let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us..." Hebrews 12:1

"...whatever is lovely, think about these things." Philippians 4:8

"For nothing will be impossible with God.” Luke 1:37