Under the Circumstances

9:35 AMHeather

If you see me using crutches to get around, just know that it's because my toes have been severely damaged from being stepped on through the Bible study Lies Women Believe.    And, if you ask me how I am BEFORE I did this study, I might be inclined to say, "Oh, pretty good--under the circumstances."  Don't we often hear of people enduring great trials and we shake our heads sympathetically to say something about how they are doing the best that can be expected--under the circumstances.  

Um, yeah, so I am super duper convicted by the following quote from Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

"We have been deceived into believing we would be happier if we had a different set of circumstances.  The Truth is,
if we are not content within our present circumstances,
we are not likely to be happy in any other set of 
circumstances...The Truth is, our circumstances do not
make us what we are.  They merely reveal what we are."

Can I hear a resounding OUCH from the audience?  Oh. My. Gravy.  Not easy to hear that are deceived when we attribute our problems to our circumstances.  That mentality makes us fall back into the victim mentality.  It tells us that we are not responsible for our behavior--it's just merely that our circumstances are so difficult.  But, oh the brutal Truth from above--that our circumstances do not make us what we are--they merely reveal what we already are.  

Stinks to have to put on my big girl pants and own up to my faults.  Own up to the fact that my irritability toward my kids is not because my lack of sleep but because I am impatient.  Ouch that my feelings of stress and anxiety are not because I am under the gun but because I have a trust issue with the Lord.  Don't even mention how my discontent is not because of some unattained goal or something out of reach but because I have an ungrateful heart.
INTENTIONAL challenge:  George Washington's wife, Martha got it.  Just listen to her wisdom in a letter she wrote to her friend, Mercy Warren:

"I am still determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.  We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with us in our minds, wherever we go."

Nancy Leigh DeMoss went there, bloggy friends.  She pointed out a major flaw in most of us.  She revealed a deceit that many of us--self included--use as a crutch to excuse our poor behavior.  The Truth is that I see this deceit glaring in my own life.  And, at this point, I think my most honest response is that I can admit my desire to want to root this out of my mind and heart.  I want to want to.  I want to want to grab hold and do the hard work of weeding out this lie and changing my mentality.  I can't really begin to imagine how my day to day would differ would I to be rid of this deceit.  I see that Truth--and I am praying for the guts to let the Truth set me free.  Even if it's from my own lame excuses.

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