The Perspective Project Day Twenty Three: Excuses

Some of the perspectives that God has been showing me recently about our struggle have been hard to handle… a bit of tough love it feels like. Today’s perspective is no different. Each time that I come to one of these perspective points on my journey… has been after taking quite a bit of time to think, pray, and process the lesson with God before sharing it.  I want you to know that if you are going through a tough time right now too that this post is not meant to make you feel guilty but to simply challenge you to look at and think of your situation differently.

One of the things that I have learned first hand is that it is tempting when times are tough to use our circumstances as an excuse to escape reality and responsibility.

There were MANY days, especially in the beginning, of our struggle that I wanted to lay in bed all day (and sometimes did). There were other days that I felt like the only way to numb the pain was through bags of chocolate and would eat until I was sick. I used the pain that I felt as an excuse to avoid people, places, and plans. I used the situation that we are in as an excuse to keep from doing daily routines, working towards goals, and moving forward.

None of these responses were healthy for me and I knew it; however it did not stop me at the time from using our situation as an excuse to “check out” a little bit. At the time I thought that I was successfully avoiding the situation and having to face the painful circumstances we were in… however in hindsight I see that I was not avoiding anything. I was only postponing needing to face, process, and accept the reality of our situation.

When God called me to began sharing the lessons I am learning in this season in life… it was really a call to stop making excuses. It was an invitation to get back to the business of living life and fulfilling the purpose that God has called me to.

Looking back over the last few weeks and months I can see that when I was using my circumstances as an excuse I was giving Satan a daily victory that he was not even having to work for.  He did not have to try to shut me down daily- I was doing that myself.

It took me some time to realize that a big part of the reason that I was using our situation as an excuse to hide from the world was fear.  It scared me to take part in living a reality that I never wanted for our family.  In some ways it was easier to grieve over the loss then face our new future… but the future always comes one day at time.  The question that I finally had to answer for myself was how many of those days was I willing to spend looking backwards instead of forwards.

I knew that I had to change my thoughts about this season of my life. It has been a challenge but I have been working on changing my perspective, trying to use these times not as an excuse but a motivation. I have allowed these tough times to motivate me to write more transparently than ever before. I have used it to motivate me to get back to eating better and working out so that I physically and emotionally feel better each day.

Yes, tough times make for excellent excuses… but they also make for powerful motivation if you can simply change the way that you look at them and react to them.  Not an easy change to make… but one that God is ready to help you with!

This song by Selah is a wonderful reminder that we can always Turn to Jesus and he will help us change our circumstances.

I invite you to travel with me on this 40 day journey as I seek to find and share perspective in our pain. Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, or by subscribing to the blog.  Feel free to also catch up on the previous posts in this series by clicking here.

Today, I would love to hear your thoughts on not using our struggles as excuses-please feel free to leave a comment below.