Choose happiness and you'll start to regain control over your life
You take a giant step toward spiritual maturity when you choose happiness and refuse to be a victim of circumstances.
One of the toughest challenges a single person faces is accepting the truth that we do have a choice in how we respond in life. Once you test this principle and prove it true, you'll never want to go back.
Society encourages us to be victims. Whenever someone commits a crime today, their defense lawyer argues that their client was abused as a child or played violent video games or was influenced by a violent movie.
The victim mentality claims we're helpless, that we don't have any control over how we respond to what life throws at us. But that's a lie.
We can choose hope, and we can choose happiness. The sooner you believe this and start putting it into practice, the more happiness you'll wring out of life.
"But you don't know
my past..."
No, I don't know your past, but we all have pasts and we've all suffered hurt and disappointment. But remaining a prisoner of our past is a conscious decision we make.
Or, we can say, "That's it. That's enough. I'm not going to live this way any more. I'm going to do everything in my power to bring happiness into my life, starting today."
That choice takes a lot of guts, but you can do it, if you ask God to help you. Something this big, this important, this difficult, requires the greatest power in the universe on your side.
You can make the decision to choose happiness yourself, but to keep choosing it in every situation that comes up, you're going to need God's help.
She chose happiness
I admire the courage of author and Bible teacher Joyce Meyer.
Joyce was physically and emotionally abused in her childhood, and by her own admission, she had a victim mentality. In the early years of her marriage, she was so messed up that she spent much of her time crying and throwing tantrums.
But at some point Joyce had enough. She put her foot down and said, "I'm not going to live this way the rest of my life." Joyce decided to choose happiness and asked God to help her.
As she details in her book Battlefield of the Mind, we have to change our thinking if we want to change our life.
Today, Joyce Meyer inspires and teaches millions of people because she took the life-changing step of deliberately choosing happiness and asking God to help her.
What will you choose?
No matter what you're facing, from loneliness, to a disability, to financial problems, to depression, you can start climbing out of that hole with the decision to choose happiness.
You'll have to change some lifelong habits. You may have to make some changes in your job or relationships with other people. You may need to get some professional help.
As somebody who did this, I can stone-guarantee you that it isn't easy. Few worthwhile things are. But I can also guarantee that if you are willing to ask for help, you can change your life for the better.
So if you've had enough misery, get started by accepting this truth right here, right now:
Starting today, with God's help, I choose happiness.
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