It occurred to me that smiling is great.

I have an amazing relationship with God and it has shown me so many things.  I used to always focus on the negative things and wonder why God didn't help me.  Through prayer, therapy and God's grace I realized that I always had the ability to change how I thought and those simple changes would help me see things in a much more positive light.  I am no were near perfect but I don't need to be.  I need to be happy with who I am and realize that I am a work in progress just like everyone else.

So with that new knowledge I realized that when things are going bad the simple act of putting a smile on my face helps me to deal with what is going on around me.   It doesn't mean I am happy about everything or that I am not ever going to cry but it makes it a bit more bearable with that smile.

I am not trying to tell everyone to smile every second of every day.  That is not possible nor practical, but to realize when I am having a bad day try putting a smile on my face and see how that little act of smiling makes others smile too.  If the day I am having is making it to hard to have a smile on my face try to find the smile on my inside, and remember not to actually be frowning outwardly.

I realize that it sounds silly to do but seriously a good smile does help.  Acting a little goofy lets your brain have a break from whatever it is that is bothering you.  This is one that I think helps kids learn they can change their own moods without our help.  Teaching children that if they go into any situation they have the power to choose if they are going to try and be okay with it or be very upset.  The simple act of putting a smile on your face and looking for the good in the situation helps make things we don't want to do better.  Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do but being upset, frowning and just moody doesn't make it any better, right??  We know we have to do it so going in with a positive attitude, a smile and looking for the positive in the event helps.

Think about how different the out comes of a doctors visit would be if you are going in for a shot:
     First you go and your mad cause you hate shots and your mood is down and your frowning.  You snap at the staff and make others grumpy too. You grumble about having had to go to the Dr. to everyone all day just being moody.  (Something you might not know is your bad mood and grouchiness rubbed off on other's in the waiting room and the staff possibly making them have a bad day)
     Second, you go in you have a smile on your face (you still hate shots), you pray for some strength and for God to help you get through this.  You talk to the staff about your worries and they explain why you need to get this shot and possibly give you a technique to help deal with the anxiety about the shot.  You let others know about your Dr.visit and how you learned something new.  (Somethings your mood did for others the smile you had on your face, cheered up someone in the waiting room who was also nervous.  You learned something new and made the staff feel good about being able to help you.  You shared your experience with others taught them something they may not have known.  Your own mood lightened as you shared your positive experience.)

Why?? What Makes me so Special???

Why do a blog?  Why do a blog trying to help others? Why share some of the things I have gone through in this life?

I feel I was called to do this blog as my form of a mission outreach.  Our church just recently had a missionary come visit and teach us about how part of our work as Christians is to spread the word of God and his teachings to those who haven't hear of God.  Listening to him speak my heart called out to me you should do that.  I knew that because I share custody of my two daughters with my ex-husband  that I would never be able to go abroad, at least not for quite a few years.  So my head began to do what it does (as you will find out there are times when my mind goes three million miles a minute in two million different directions and unfortunately sometimes my writing reflects that) and I thought of different ways to reach people from here in CT.  I have had two other blogs that I started and used for awhile but my heart was not completely into them, so they fizzled out.  So the thought of starting a blog that would not only help spread the word of God and his teaching but also a blog that would help others.  I talked this over with my husband, we prayed and he agreed that if this is something that I am feeling called to do that I should at least give it a shot.  I pray that this is where God wanted me to use my ability to talk to help others and that I am able to make this blog work where I was not able to make my others work.

I am by far not a pastor and I have a lot in my life that I could choose to be ashamed of instead of I am choosing to admit those failures to God and to you my readers. I know for all of my wrong doings, I regret having made those choices but I have confessed those sins to God and believe that I have been forgiven.  1 John 1:7-9 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.  If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/bible-verses-about-sin-10-important-scriptures/#ixzz26sXf30sp Those choices led me here to where I am and although I regret them because they were wrong and I sinned I don't regret where I am now.  What makes me so great I can blog??  Well nothing,  I am just a person that loves writing, but I am horrible at spelling and grammar (nothing overly special).  I feel like my life has been blessed by God.  He has lead me from a very destructive path and brought me into the light. A path that God always wanted me to be on.

I have never read the bible from front to back.  I have read parts of the bible and studied different parts of the bible but never cover to cover.  At some points in my life I was just a holiday Christian.  To be completely honest it wasn't until my husband and I found this church, New Life Church I wasn't sure that I would ever find a church that I wanted to go to every Sunday again.  I had found one when I had lived in Missouri but the move to Connecticut seemed to leave me looking for churches but coming up empty.  I had even stopped looking for a couple of years.   So I will be posting scriptures that I feel link to what I am talking about as I continue on this blog journey,  I will eventually read the whole bible as well but I still tend to need the Internet to help me find the scripture that I am looking for even when I know kind of what I want. This doesn't mean that every post will have scripture in it because I feel it's my calling to help everyone find the positive things in their lives since a lot of us struggle with this.  I myself struggled with sever clinical depression, I am currently recovering and no longer on medication for my depression.  It's been a long hard path but I feel with all the things I have learned I should share them and hopefully help others.

Right now I am a substitute teacher, who's birthday is next week.  I am planning my oldest daughter's birthday party the day before our wedding (yes I am already married to my husband).  We didn't have a full wedding when we got married and now that we have a Church we would like to get married in front of God, our family and friends.  Our first wedding was the day after my younger daughter's birthday with just our mothers and the justice of the peace present.    So when my older daughter asked for this wedding to be the day after her birthday we said okay, being the goofy couple we are we aren't planning on celebrating our anniversary as the day of the weddings any way we plan on celebrating the day we met.  So I doing my best to write out a post a week I hope but please understand I maybe a little busy for the next couple of weeks.  I have ideas going in my journal while I am on break at school so I really hope that I can get them all out there to you all.

We are each blessed, whether we choose to see it or not.  Some of the simplest things to be able to help see the positive in your life is to start talking note of them, you can start a small note book where you write down some positive things that you noticed or just recognize them.

Top of our blessings God loves us and is here for us.
One thing you are blessed with is that you have the ability to read.
Two you have the ability to use a computer and the Internet.