Not as sweet...or does it matter?
I am daily amazed at how much of our circumstances are affected by our attitude. There is a new lesson in this fact every single day if you are looking for it. I certainly have at least one a day, but my life tends to provide several a day.
We ran out of this special substitute sugar that I was using because I wanted to drink my tea without using sugar. This was not the usual chemical stuff, but yet another one that no one has told me is bad for me yet, but I am sure that revelation is coming. Regardless, we only had one box of it and it ran out. So I had no sugar for my tea.
Tea. Yes. I have been drinking tea. "Why is that?" someone might ask if they knew me. It took me two years to get a coffee pot for my apart"room" here in Thailand. Two whole years I wished I could have a real cup of coffee in the morning like a grown up, but was handed a packet of instant nonetheless. We finally broke down and made the $35 investment in a coffee pot. I spent two weeks completely high on too much caffeine, and totally disrupted my sleep patterns until things settled down. It took less time than that to give up on the coffee altogether because it turns out my husband and I have very different ideas about what makes a decent cup of coffee. Since there is no way to reconcile his version of coffee with anything I desire to consume, I gave up coffee and starting drinking tea. So now he uses the coffee pot every morning, and I get a cup of tea.
Recently we have decided to cut out the sugar in our respective coffee and tea, so I moved to the aforementioned sugar substitute and that ran out. Now faced with a sugarless tea, I did what anyone in my position would have done having already given up the coffee it took two years to get. I drank the tea without the sugar. I did this for the many days it took to get to the store where Troy mentioned that we should replace the sugar substitute. At this point, I realized that I had been drinking the sugarless tea for days now. I also realized that it wasn't a problem. I was resigned to drinking the tea as it was each day so I didn't sit there and note that each sip of the tea I was drinking was lacking that beautiful sweet taste I had come to expect, but instead I just drank my warm liquid each morning and enjoyed it.
I told Troy that I didn't want or need the sugar substitute and that I had been enjoying my tea without it so there was really no point now. As I write these words, I am sipping away on a cup of sugarless tea. It's gotten cold now, but it is still sugarless. That is something I would not have thought possible not long ago, and I learned something about myself. I can change. I knew that, but what I mean is, if I let myself, I can change a lot more than I realized before. There are so many things that we would like to change, but we can't get passed the point of wanting to doing because of our attitude.
Attitude is the determining factor in this case. I saw no point in whining, complaining or otherwise pitching a fit about my morning drink. I just didn't want to start each day that way so I got happy and drank my unsweet tea! It was a process to get to the place where I liked it, and it took an epiphany in the store to realize I could go on like this, but it all amounts to real change for me.
If I had taken each sip looking for the taste that could not be there because of the lacking sugar I would have downed every cup but been dissatisfied. We do this all the time! Not with tea, but with all different things in our lives. We look for what we believe we are missing and can't see how good what we have actually is. It affects our lives, our happiness our relationships. It affects everything. No matter who you are there is something that you don't have that you would like. It is the human condition, but how much of it is necessary for real. Not just because your attitude keeps you from enjoying what you do have or making the best of it.
Troy and I have lived in a small room for two years. I call it the apart"room" because there is no way to give it the name apartment. Even an efficiency "one" room apartment as we know them in the US has certain things. It may be one room, but there is always a bathroom and a kitchen. Turns out the bathroom is essential, but the kitchen is optional. I don't love that. I am frankly and honestly ready for that to change, but until it does I am guarding my attitude! That is because I realize that life can go from generally happy to utterly miserable if I let my attitude run rampant on me! I do not want to wash my dishes in the tiny little bathroom sink. I don't like it, but I do it because I am happy that there is a sink.
We once did our dishes in the tub that we used to catch our shower water so that it could be used to flush the toilet. That is the water that would run down our bodies and then land in the tub. None of us actually remember cleaning the tub before it was put into service as the dish tub, but we rinsed the dishes with bleach water and called the job done! Yes...attitude is everything!
Success and Happiness in life are up to you. It really is that simple. Jesus suffered a great deal to provide for us everything we needed for Life and Godliness. He made the way for our happiness, but it is up to us to do something with what we have been given. This has always been a two way deal. God made us and He had it all worked out for us to succeed. Even when man changed the situation He had a plan. He gives, we take. In the end, it comes down to us taking because His giving is universal and available to all - so the only thing that matters is if we do out part because He already did His.
Attitude makes or breaks anything. Your attitude can get you through ANYTHING if you control it and it doesn't control you. Good attitude or Bad attitude. It is pretty simple. I really am talking about the fruit of the spirit and the fruit of your flesh, but that gets all lofty and spiritual and I will lose some of you. I don't want to lose you - I want you to take this into your hearts and have it help you.
This is my Master Bathroom/Guest Bathroom/Kitchen Sink. This is all she wrote! I just snapped a picture of it and I am pretty proud of myself for getting it on here, but there it is. Immediately to the left is the Toilet and to the right is the Shower Head. It is a tiny bathroom and there is no separation for the floor so whenever we take a shower the entire bathroom floor is the shower floor. It gets old. It has been two years. Would I like to move? Yes, of course! As soon as I can, but I am going to be happy here in the meantime. This situation is enough to make some people quit being on the mission field! This is what I am saying about attitude. Things can be difficult for seasons, but you determine the outcome of all of your difficult seasons by your attitude. I promise! This is a step up from the shower tub!
I was at a friends house recently. They have a whole house. They were hosting a church service in their home, and there were many people there. I enjoyed it because when we have guests they are sitting in our bedroom with us. We only have two desk chairs so that means that some of us have to sit on our bed. It's pretty weird and we only have people over who can handle it, but this day we were at our friends place and it had lots of rooms. There had been food served and there were dishes piled up so I secretly went into the kitchen to do the dishes. I was enjoying it, but I knew the host would chase me out of there if she saw me doing the dishes so I prayed. I told God that I was really enjoying doing the dishes in a real sink, and that I wasn't in there trying to make myself look good so I would appreciate it if he kept everybody otherwise engaged so that I could freely finish the job. As that happened, I asked Him to let this be seed for my future kitchen sink.
After that, He spoke to my heart. He reminded me of the scripture that says that God can give you your own when you have been faithful in another man's. I have always seen that scripture in a negative light because I have been on the raw end of people abusing that scripture to use others for their own means. In this case it was a blessing, but there was more to it than just doing someones dishes for some kind of God credit. I saw my own current sink and all the dishes I did there. It never makes me happy like the real sink I was currently washing dishes in did, but I have kept my attitude in check with great effort. I am always honest about how much I dislike it, but I turn that into a prayer for a new season to come for me one day. There are other options for my response and subsequent behavior - non of them are good for me. I truly believe that sink is coming and God's speaking to my heart that day was a promise to me that He has heard my prayers, my complaints, seen my hearts desire and was letting me know that the day will come when I have a sink again. I am not sure when, but it is coming and I can be happy until it gets here. When it does come I can start talking to Him about getting back the dishwasher! Maybe. It depends on where this is.
What about you? How are you handling those things that try your patience? Is there anywhere where you attitude needs to be forced to the positive side? It will make a difference in your life if you do it. Is there anything that you need to get through that you know will be difficult to change yourself to accomplish, but would be worth it if you succeeded? That's an attitude accomplishment then. You can do it. You just have to be willing to get through each day until the change is there.
Hope this blesses somebody! :)
We ran out of this special substitute sugar that I was using because I wanted to drink my tea without using sugar. This was not the usual chemical stuff, but yet another one that no one has told me is bad for me yet, but I am sure that revelation is coming. Regardless, we only had one box of it and it ran out. So I had no sugar for my tea.
Tea. Yes. I have been drinking tea. "Why is that?" someone might ask if they knew me. It took me two years to get a coffee pot for my apart"room" here in Thailand. Two whole years I wished I could have a real cup of coffee in the morning like a grown up, but was handed a packet of instant nonetheless. We finally broke down and made the $35 investment in a coffee pot. I spent two weeks completely high on too much caffeine, and totally disrupted my sleep patterns until things settled down. It took less time than that to give up on the coffee altogether because it turns out my husband and I have very different ideas about what makes a decent cup of coffee. Since there is no way to reconcile his version of coffee with anything I desire to consume, I gave up coffee and starting drinking tea. So now he uses the coffee pot every morning, and I get a cup of tea.
Recently we have decided to cut out the sugar in our respective coffee and tea, so I moved to the aforementioned sugar substitute and that ran out. Now faced with a sugarless tea, I did what anyone in my position would have done having already given up the coffee it took two years to get. I drank the tea without the sugar. I did this for the many days it took to get to the store where Troy mentioned that we should replace the sugar substitute. At this point, I realized that I had been drinking the sugarless tea for days now. I also realized that it wasn't a problem. I was resigned to drinking the tea as it was each day so I didn't sit there and note that each sip of the tea I was drinking was lacking that beautiful sweet taste I had come to expect, but instead I just drank my warm liquid each morning and enjoyed it.
I told Troy that I didn't want or need the sugar substitute and that I had been enjoying my tea without it so there was really no point now. As I write these words, I am sipping away on a cup of sugarless tea. It's gotten cold now, but it is still sugarless. That is something I would not have thought possible not long ago, and I learned something about myself. I can change. I knew that, but what I mean is, if I let myself, I can change a lot more than I realized before. There are so many things that we would like to change, but we can't get passed the point of wanting to doing because of our attitude.
Attitude is the determining factor in this case. I saw no point in whining, complaining or otherwise pitching a fit about my morning drink. I just didn't want to start each day that way so I got happy and drank my unsweet tea! It was a process to get to the place where I liked it, and it took an epiphany in the store to realize I could go on like this, but it all amounts to real change for me.
If I had taken each sip looking for the taste that could not be there because of the lacking sugar I would have downed every cup but been dissatisfied. We do this all the time! Not with tea, but with all different things in our lives. We look for what we believe we are missing and can't see how good what we have actually is. It affects our lives, our happiness our relationships. It affects everything. No matter who you are there is something that you don't have that you would like. It is the human condition, but how much of it is necessary for real. Not just because your attitude keeps you from enjoying what you do have or making the best of it.
Troy and I have lived in a small room for two years. I call it the apart"room" because there is no way to give it the name apartment. Even an efficiency "one" room apartment as we know them in the US has certain things. It may be one room, but there is always a bathroom and a kitchen. Turns out the bathroom is essential, but the kitchen is optional. I don't love that. I am frankly and honestly ready for that to change, but until it does I am guarding my attitude! That is because I realize that life can go from generally happy to utterly miserable if I let my attitude run rampant on me! I do not want to wash my dishes in the tiny little bathroom sink. I don't like it, but I do it because I am happy that there is a sink.
We once did our dishes in the tub that we used to catch our shower water so that it could be used to flush the toilet. That is the water that would run down our bodies and then land in the tub. None of us actually remember cleaning the tub before it was put into service as the dish tub, but we rinsed the dishes with bleach water and called the job done! Yes...attitude is everything!
Success and Happiness in life are up to you. It really is that simple. Jesus suffered a great deal to provide for us everything we needed for Life and Godliness. He made the way for our happiness, but it is up to us to do something with what we have been given. This has always been a two way deal. God made us and He had it all worked out for us to succeed. Even when man changed the situation He had a plan. He gives, we take. In the end, it comes down to us taking because His giving is universal and available to all - so the only thing that matters is if we do out part because He already did His.
Attitude makes or breaks anything. Your attitude can get you through ANYTHING if you control it and it doesn't control you. Good attitude or Bad attitude. It is pretty simple. I really am talking about the fruit of the spirit and the fruit of your flesh, but that gets all lofty and spiritual and I will lose some of you. I don't want to lose you - I want you to take this into your hearts and have it help you.
This is my Master Bathroom/Guest Bathroom/Kitchen Sink. This is all she wrote! I just snapped a picture of it and I am pretty proud of myself for getting it on here, but there it is. Immediately to the left is the Toilet and to the right is the Shower Head. It is a tiny bathroom and there is no separation for the floor so whenever we take a shower the entire bathroom floor is the shower floor. It gets old. It has been two years. Would I like to move? Yes, of course! As soon as I can, but I am going to be happy here in the meantime. This situation is enough to make some people quit being on the mission field! This is what I am saying about attitude. Things can be difficult for seasons, but you determine the outcome of all of your difficult seasons by your attitude. I promise! This is a step up from the shower tub!
I was at a friends house recently. They have a whole house. They were hosting a church service in their home, and there were many people there. I enjoyed it because when we have guests they are sitting in our bedroom with us. We only have two desk chairs so that means that some of us have to sit on our bed. It's pretty weird and we only have people over who can handle it, but this day we were at our friends place and it had lots of rooms. There had been food served and there were dishes piled up so I secretly went into the kitchen to do the dishes. I was enjoying it, but I knew the host would chase me out of there if she saw me doing the dishes so I prayed. I told God that I was really enjoying doing the dishes in a real sink, and that I wasn't in there trying to make myself look good so I would appreciate it if he kept everybody otherwise engaged so that I could freely finish the job. As that happened, I asked Him to let this be seed for my future kitchen sink.
After that, He spoke to my heart. He reminded me of the scripture that says that God can give you your own when you have been faithful in another man's. I have always seen that scripture in a negative light because I have been on the raw end of people abusing that scripture to use others for their own means. In this case it was a blessing, but there was more to it than just doing someones dishes for some kind of God credit. I saw my own current sink and all the dishes I did there. It never makes me happy like the real sink I was currently washing dishes in did, but I have kept my attitude in check with great effort. I am always honest about how much I dislike it, but I turn that into a prayer for a new season to come for me one day. There are other options for my response and subsequent behavior - non of them are good for me. I truly believe that sink is coming and God's speaking to my heart that day was a promise to me that He has heard my prayers, my complaints, seen my hearts desire and was letting me know that the day will come when I have a sink again. I am not sure when, but it is coming and I can be happy until it gets here. When it does come I can start talking to Him about getting back the dishwasher! Maybe. It depends on where this is.
What about you? How are you handling those things that try your patience? Is there anywhere where you attitude needs to be forced to the positive side? It will make a difference in your life if you do it. Is there anything that you need to get through that you know will be difficult to change yourself to accomplish, but would be worth it if you succeeded? That's an attitude accomplishment then. You can do it. You just have to be willing to get through each day until the change is there.
Hope this blesses somebody! :)
posted by Troy and Grace Elliott at Thursday, April 22, 2010
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