Standing on my Soap Box

Change is inevitable – attitude is everything!

  • Sheila Rempel, Author
  • Writer, Southeastern Manitoba

I once heard someone say that change was inevitable. Nothing stays the same, and you never know when change is going to happen. One day your life is going along, and wham you get a phone call that changes your life. You have a decision to make that affects SOO many people. You can either decide to go with the change or leave things as they are. Either way you a decision needs to be made, and even if you choose to do nothing, it is still a decision.

I’ve had that happen just this week, the first instance was an email giving me news about a legal matter. The email was good news for some, and hopefully jail time for another. And although it had nothing to do with me and my life personally, it did bring up some issues within myself, and my attitude. I have un-forgiveness, resentment, and anger over decisions that others have made. I have to make the choice to forgive and let go, and just pray about the outcome for those personally affected, or I can hold the resentment in, and become bitter! I know the proper answer, which is the one that I chosen (becoming bitter is so unbecoming and not very ladylike.) This email has allowed me to change.

The other instance was a phone call. This is a change does affect me. As you may or may not know, we as a family need to sell our home. The house has done us well for 10 years. It is a Bi-Level which means it has stairs. As you know my husband has not been 100% healthy, and part of his problem is his joints. We need a bungalow.

So we had gone looking last week at homes, and found a house we liked. Our agent called this week to say that an offer was being placed on the home that night, and if we really wanted this home we needed to put in an offer that evening as well. Did we want to do that? We have a mortgage preapproval in place so that is not a problem. The house was well within what we can afford, and by golly, we liked it. Our problem with writing up an offer, is simple, we have not sold our current home, and believe that God does not want us owning two homes until our house sells. (I guess we need to wait until our house sells before we go looking at houses again!) Our decision was to NOT write up an offer, and believe that God had a BETTER house in store for us (really, a better one?). By better, I do not mean that this house was not good, only it may not be good for us. God has chosen to close that door, so we are back in the “hallway” and our choice is to Praise him in hallway, until he opens another door.

So why am I telling you this on my soapbox? Well, because I think this talks about attitude. I believe Jeremiah 29:11 (a verse that is OFTEN quoted when things don’t go the way we think they should) For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not go harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. When I remember that my attitude and expectancy is changed.