Why Do We Struggle to Find the Bright Side?

Continuation of #mystory “How Do We Handle Suffering?“

It was a hot, summer day in August with the heat beating down. That time in summer when you just can’t seem to take it anymore. You’re tired of entertaining kids from months on end. You’re cranky beyond P.M.S…no reason, really…just because. You’re wishing you had more money to take a vacation like the friend next door. You’re dying to see your bad circumstances come to an end.

But God doesn’t seem to be listening to what you want.

So, you take matters into your own hands. You try to push God along to get things done.

C’mon God, answer my prayers!

I am tired of feeling this way.

Stuck in the mud.

Unable to bury my head.

When we don’t get an answer, we resort

When the Scriptures fail to meet our emotional need, we react. We do. Rather than allowing God to finish the work in us, we readily take matters into our own hands. Because no one wants to wait. Waiting appears to be for the faint-of-heart. For the weak. For those who cannot do something on their own.

After months of trials and tribulations, I struggled to be like Paul and “count it all joy” (James 1:2). I needed a pick-me-up. Maybe you can relate. You’re feeling down in the dumps about something. Anything. Plain & simple: You’ve had a bad day. And you resort to a “it makes me feel good” person, place or thing. Maybe it’s shopping. Or eating. Or driving. Or vacationing. Or binging.

I tried to make myself happy

For me, it meant dying my hair. You see, months ago my husband made a haphazard comment, “I wonder what you would look like with Addie’s [our middle-daughter] color of hair?” I tucked away his comment in the back of my brain. You see, in my opinion, Addie has the most gorgeous of hair. It is this natural, amber tone of red. The kind you would pay a million-bucks for at the salon.

So, I grabbed a box of do-it-yourself and thought I would surprise my husband when he came home from work. Well, you could certainly say it was a surprise. My hair turned out this awful kind of old lady purple. Not the cool, hipster kinda purple…I maybe could of settled for that. No, it was much worse. It looked like I had spray-painted my blond hair some kind of lilac.

I threw on a baseball cap and tossed my three kids in the back of our giganteus suv and headed straight to the beauty shop. Don’t ask me how she did it–but I’m convinced my beautician is a miracle-worker. She whipped my hair back into shape all within one episode of Dora. Man, I sure do love her.

Let God Finish His Work

How are you able to look on the bright side when your world appears to be crashing in?

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4