“If you believe, you will receive…’ (Matthew 21:22, NIV)

I love this verse, it is so simple and yet, perhaps, the most difficult to follow. The power of life and death is in the tongue and what is on the tongue, is always in the heart.

The people who always seem to more happy, more upbeat and more fulfilled with their lives are the people who have a good sound mind and who are always thinking about and dwelling on the more positive things. They choose, with their own free wills, to dwell on things with a light and fresh attitude, knowing full well that life isn’t always what we thought and that sometimes there are going to come times where attitude has an input, the most important input.

Have you ever spent an hour with a person who isn’t fulfilled, who is always pessimistic and depressed all the time. People who have negative attitudes towards anybody and anything, and are choosing to think and dwell on the negative side of life. I can admit that sometimes I look in the mirror and this person is me. Sometimes it is easier to moan and complain. And sometimes, I just feel like being a little black thunder cloud who came to rain on the parade- because sometimes it takes too much effort to stand up, fix my hair, change my attitude and walk with a different pair of glasses on, choosing to see the good in the worse.

Granted, this cursed and fallen world in which we live in has a mixture of both life and death residing in it. Jesus himself said that we would all have various trials and tribulations that we would go through from time to time. Storm clouds are apart of this life, and no one will get by not having to drive in the rain at some point or another.

But maybe a good life starts in our head, just like a bad… and with the renewing of your mind..I want to be the person who can always find the good in a situation. Looking at the good in life wasn’t something that was taught very well as I was growing up, I am not turning this into a ‘woe is me, my childhood my childhood‘, but more to recognize a pattern and find the courage to chart a new course for myself. I was to see that although I am a million miles away on an adventure that doesn’t quiet look how I expected it too, some good has to come from this. I will learn a lot about myself and the back bone that I was given. I want to return home the same but different. I want to be positive and always smiling. I want to be healthy (after just having ate my body weight in mint choc chip ice-cream) and have a shine that comes from the inside- to realise that there are no excuses, just the ones that you make for yourself.

So. here’s to the silver lining, sunny side up, blogs, a good cup of coffee, Freedom, laughter, post cards, ice-cream, skype.

Here’s to triumphs and lessons, good times and bad, to the things you cant change and to the thing you wouldn’t if you could. Here’s to living this precious life well, with grace dignity and gumption!!

Proverbs 23:7 teaches, “For as a [wo]man things within their heart, so is [s]he”… and Proverbs is never wrong!