I had just picked baby T up from school and asked how her day went. She responded, ‘Do you ever wish you could just erase a day?’
After further questioning, I learnt she had an unpleasant situation during the day, but the rest of the day was actually good/fair. Then I asked, ‘Why did you choose to focus on the bad?’
I have to admit I am equally guilty of this on many days. When something doesn’t go as planned or expected, I tend to take it out on the entire day, and that is the point of this post.
Is it a bad day or a bad situation?
A lot of people focus on an isolated event in the day as the course of the day when really it isn’t. Maybe you were late to work because your bus was late. This has the tendency to ruin your mood the entire morning, but you forget you met someone pleasant on the bus, or that you are even well enough to make it to work that day.
They say life is all about perspectives. The onus is on us to deliberately look for the good in every situation.
Maybe you lost a job, and that is painful, but how about the person who has a job but is too unwell to do it?
It might seem cliché, especially if you hear this on the motivational streets of social media. But do you ever ask, ‘How can I improve my perspective of life?’ or even pray that God helps you?
Is it a bad situation or a bad life?
We always say nobody has a perfect life, yet we are so hard on ourselves when an aspect of our lives isn’t as ‘beautiful’ as the others.
Maybe you have great kids, but your marriage is unhappy?
Or you have a great marriage, but your career isn’t as good.
This is not to say we should settle in life and be complacent. In fact, everyone is a work in progress.
But we could learn the art of ‘compartmentalising’ and giving thanks for what is working.
A famous quote from Pastor Bolaji Idowu (a Nigeria-based global leader) says, ‘What you give thanks to God for always grows,’ and I agree completely.
I have tried this, and I can say it works. In the midst of a messy situation once, I decided to look for the good in it, and I focused my heart on it, gave thanks repeatedly. I can say the situation did not change, but my perspective changed, and I suffered less.
You might wonder what I mean by suffered less. I have a personal quote, which is that ‘we all suffer in one way or another, but our perspective shapes how we suffer.’
Can we erase the day?
We all experience those days when we wish we could start all over, or even situations and past decisions we deeply regret and wish we could undo, but the truth is, no one has a time machine.
I will probably talk about this in a bit more detail in the next blog post, but remember that God is able to make all things work together for your good.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8 v 28
God can bring good out of even the worst mistakes if we give it to God.
I hope you have been blessed today. Please leave a comment and share. I leave you with the peace of God!
