Some people are consumed by the fire. Some people are built from it.
Fire can and does destroy if uncontrolled. Life is a lot like that. Anything you think of, if uncontrolled, has the power to destroy. That is true of even the most pleasurable things.
Overdoing it with anything can create issues in your life. If left unchecked, it will eventually become destructive – like fire.
So where do we draw the line between enjoyment and destructive power?
Maybe it’s not a where, but a what: attitude.
I’ve lived long enough to look back and see evidence of both pleasant, controlled fires that offered warmth, light and atmosphere as well as virulent, insatiable uncontrolled fires that laid waste to whatever was in their path. Seems to me what differentiated the former from the latter was my attitudes.
Among a pile of freewriting I found a few salient thoughts about one’s past and how to use it to build one’s life both now and in the future . . .
- Don’t make your day dreary and your companions disgusted by regrets. If it’s good, it’s great. If it’s bad, it’s experience. Keep moving ahead.
- Be strong enough to let go and patient enough to wait in God’s time for what He wants to place in your life.
- Mature people avoid drama. They know Time is precious and they don’t waste it on unimportant things.
- Hope is a revolutionary patience.
- “I can never get my old life back!” That’s true. But you can begin creating a new one any time you choose.
- Memories can freeze . . . features, actions, things done and said ‘back there’. Time makes changes in them all – and in you. If you’re still busy hanging onto ___ years ago, then the great I AM says to let go and be living here, today, right now. Past, present and coming attractions are all alike to Him; leave it all in His hands.
- If you could see the blessing that is coming, you would better understand the magnitude of the battles you are fighting.
I am thankful for my yesterdays. Looking back, I can see where God’s hand has been on me . . .
Gently guiding, His touch so feather-light I often glanced around to reassure myself He was still there.
Gripping me a little tighter when the challenges arose. Every time they’d pop up like a carnival fun-house monster, I felt God’s firm hold reminding me I wasn’t alone.
His stern, “No. This way!” when I’d have my occasional fit of independence, thinking, “I’m cool, God. I got this.”
Crickets from Heaven – God’s way of saying, “I’ve given you everything you need to be everything you want; and you know my Word and my will for you. Walk on, son. Your faith is strong and I’m right here.”
If you’re like me, your yesterdays are a checkerboard of good and not-so-some-kind-of-wonderful. Yet they all are worth their weight in lessons learned.
Wise is the person who greatly values days and years past. Wiser yet is the one who refuses to relive them but instead keeps their face toward the rising sun and their direction toward what’s ahead.
The Winds of Fate
One ship drives east and another drives west, while the self-same breezes blow; It’s the set of the sails and not the gales that bids them where to go.
Like the winds of the seas are the ways of the fates as we voyage through life; It’s the set of the soul that decides the goal, and not the storm nor the strife.
~Edna Wheeler Wilcox~
© D. Dean Boone, February 2015