A Work In Progress

A Work In Progress
copyrighted by Millie Plastaras 8/6/2006

Have you ever been around a group of people,
and emotions got so out of control, that it was almost
unbearable to stay there and try to deal with it?

What about in your family situations? We are all so
vulnerable to our families.. they know us so well... they know
our past, and they know the right buttons to push, either
to encourage or to discourage. They know how to uplift
or make us feel like nothing.

Those are not easy things to cope with. I was recently
in a situation with some people.. twice actually,
where things I said were taken another way, and it
seemed there was no way to fix it. Not only did they
not hear what I was saying, they didn't seem to want to.
I think they really wanted to find fault with me, for
whatever reason. Perhaps some unexpressed displeasure
at something I have said or done in the past.
The need to be right and find fault superceded the need
to forgive and love anyway.

Something we all battle with.

Sometimes in family settings, I tend to feel guilty for
things of the past I should have done and did not do,
or did do, and wish I had not.

How do we deal with all these things? How do
we learn coping skills for what life throws at us,
whether emotions, hard circumstances, death,
loss, illness, failure, or even rejection. There are many
things in life we must "go through".

Therein lies the key.

We do not stay in the situation,
we work through it, and eventually come out
on the other side.

Some people do not... they want to stay there
in that hurtful place, and rehearse the remarks
that were said to them, and the rejection they
felt and play it over and over in their mind,
never forgiving, never moving on, and never
feeling good about themselves. They would
rather live a life of defeat and dwell in the past
than set goals for the future and remake their
life. Sometimes they do not realize this is
what they are doing, basically, torturing themselves.

We all have new chances everyday. But you,
my dear friends, must make those choices all by yourself.
The good news is, once you decide to change your life,
set new goals, forgive old hurts, you find your path
is so much more free, less encumbered, and certainly
not full of thoughts that constantly bombard our
emotions like they do when we obsess over our
situations and past.

All these things are for a moment, but these too shall pass.
Life moves on, and we must live it while we have it.

Who within the sound of my voice has not made mistakes
and wish they could go back? We cannot, but we can
learn and move on. Forgive yourself my friend, you are
human, confess your faults and failings to the Lord,
allow him to remold you and make you into a new creature
in Him. He loves you dearly, and sees in you, what you CAN
be, not what you Have been.

Behold if anyone is IN Christ, he is a new
creation, old things have passed away, behold
all things have become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17

We may not feel like a new creation, but we are
a creation in progress, we are still under construction,
love your life, live it well, live it for the king of kings
and allow him to steer you through the freeways
of life with their treachery, danger, loss, and frustrations.
He sees the road ahead, and has the perfect solution,
for all of us flawed, short-sighted people out here
who need someone's guidance every hour.

I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies
of God that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your
reasonable service!
And do not be conformed to this world (cause you
are a new creation) but be transformed (renewed daily)
by the renewing of your mind, that you may
prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God.
Romans 12:1,2

Remembering, in closing, that old poem,
if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
Or, if you fall, pick yourself up, dust yourself
off and start all over again.

You can do all things through Christ who
strengthens you. Even change yourself!

Never give up, never feel hopeless, never feel
like you are a loser or a failure... yesterday is
history, leave it there.

love
millie

Forgetting those things which are behind and
reaching forward to those things which are ahead.
I press towards the mark (goal) for the prize of
the high calling of God (on my life and yours)
in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:13b-14

Who loved you, and gave himself for you,
even while you were a sinner, he loved you with
a full, abiding, merciful forgiving Love.

love
millie