Use Positives to Rise Above the Limits of Discouragement
You can rise above the limits of discouragement – the weights and anchors dragging you down to “reality” and declaring you can’t live that dream. A shift in your attitude will get you through the grey days, the dark moments, and even the storms.
The world will not encourage your vaccinating against the limits of discouragement but it is the only way you will step into your purposeful and unique life.
Daily Inspiration and Encouragement
February 4, 2020
Daily Dash of Twisted Encouragement
Stay Vaccinated Against the Real Dangers of Life
The talk about vaccinations happens every time an outbreak happens, every year when school starts back up, and sometimes when people sneeze in public. People looking to vaccinations look with the faith that the vaccinations will protect them to one level or another.
And yet, very few people talk about being vaccinated against the things that not only will kill you but will infect the people around you. People never stand in line to receive the immunizations. “It won’t affect me,” they all say.
And yet, despair and discouragement are highly contagious and usually all over you before you know you’ve encountered them. When despair and discouragement bombard the system then the system becomes corrupted.
I attended a group that met each week to talk and share. Every week, the leader sent out a message informing the attendees of the topic. Every week, the focus remained on the despair and discouragement around us.
The idea would be to gather and share and come away encouraged. The problem involved the focus. When you are talking about despair and discouragement all the time then it becomes what you immolate. Remember, where you focus there you go.
I would spend half the day trying to overcome the negatives encountered during the meeting. The one time I brought up my concern, it was suggested that focusing on the positives meant choosing to be blind to the reality of the world.
My dad and I were talking about this very topic today – the focus on what the world has told us is the reality versus a focus based in faith. It’s hard enough to walk daily by faith without the people around you piling on the demands of a reality focus.
The only way to reach all of your BIG DREAMS is to believe beyond the limits of the view of reality to the point that even that view won’t keep you from taking the next step.
Invested Beyond the Limits of Discouragement
You are designed to thrive – to live bold and purposeful – even in this world. The key to getting beyond the limits of discouragement or despair is to find ways to invest in hope and encouragement.
- Start the day with a positive. Before you get going for the day, say something positive. Around our house, we often quote the great philosopher, Little Bear, who would declare, “Today is a very good day.” Somedays, we have to say it several times before it sticks. Find a positive and start your day on that note.
- Find possibility thinkers to hang around. They don’t have to be on the same path. Possibility thinking begets possibility thinking. When you hang around people on the lookout for possibilities and daring to pursue possibilities then you begin to develop that habit as well.
- Ingest positive words, sounds, and images. They will tell you that you are what you eat. Believe me when I tell you that you become what you ingest. If you are ingesting negatives then your focus will shift to the negatives. You create a heart and mind that will elevate above the limits of discouragement and despair when you actively ingest positives throughout your day.
- Turn away from the discouragement. Sometimes it shows up unexpectedly. Sometimes you run into it while looking in a different direction. Sometimes you bring it upon yourself. Always be willing to recognize it and walk away. The longer you stay in the presence of discouragement and despair the easier it becomes for their roots to set in.
- Keep rehearsing the dream. When things get tough, remember the dream. Imagine a day lived out through the dream. Speak the promise of the dream. Share the dream with someone that encourages and supports your possibility pursuit. Sometimes, all it takes to get above the limits of discouragement and despair is a sprinkle of the dream.
- Do a little bit. Do something that moves you forward or gets you in the rhythm of your BIG DREAM. It can be a struggle to move amidst the investments of discouragement and despair trying to pull you down, but a little bit of momentum will make way for a little bit more until you are rising above the negatives and even soaring into your BIG DREAMS.
Grey days happen – those days too bright to be a rainy day but too dark to be a sunny day – that serve to remind you minute by minute that you can’t do it. Or that is what despair and discouragement want you to embrace.
No matter how grey the day, the sun is shining. No matter how bad the storm, it too shall pass. No matter what the world has demanded, your heart can soar above the limits the world has set into place.
When you choose to have an attitude focused on hope, founded in encouragement, and seeking out possibilities then you will rise above the limits of discouragement and despair.
How do you rise above?
Challenge for Intentional Actions
Rising Above the Limits of Discouragement
Start the day with a positive.
Hang around positive people.
Ingest positive things.
Rehearse the possibilities of your dreams.
Discouragement will attempt to drag you down. It will hang on you. It will follow you around. It will whisper in your ear or shout from the streets. If you are going to rise above discouragement or despair you have to be invested intentional positives and positive thinking.
Quote of the Day
“Your want has to be powerful enough to ignite the will or you won’t.” – Kathryn Lang
What Others Say
Scripture Focus
Today’s Readings:
Leviticus 13 – 16
2 Kings 11 – 15
Ezekiel 9 – 12
Proverbs 4
Scripture Focus:
“Get Wisdom. Get understanding. Forget not what you have learned from them and do not even bend away from the Word.” – Proverbs 4:5
Ponder Point:
Focus makes a difference. When you are focused on God, on His Wisdom and the understanding you gain from consistent and persistent investment in His Wisdom then you will live in the blessings He has promised. If you bend away from it or if you lose sight of it then you are walking in your own strength.
Share Moment:
What is the difference between walking in a focus on God and walking in your own strength?
Study Question
Dig in deeper to the Word to grow a closer relationship with the Word.
Scripture mentions that a man focused on God will have length of days. How does a God focus create a longer day?
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