Lord, I'm GRATEFUL!

I ran across a reel on FB today and it brought me back to a place where I once was. I didn't get emotional. No, I'm healed, but I did remember. I remember how I felt without actually reliving the pain...That's how you know you're healed. Anywho, I posted on FB saying how I remember the feeling of failure and inadequacy when I had to put my mother as my emergency contact after I got divorced. That may sound silly, but if we're being honest, there are really high stakes attached to whether you're married or not. Somehow people and even unwed individuals feel an unmarried person is less than desirable because they haven't been "chosen." Well, I've been chosen and it damn sure wasn't all it's cracked up to be! Nonetheless, I found myself in this unhappy, embarrassing place of having to put my mom as the person to call if something happened to me. BUT a healed mind knows that there are blessings there. In fact, there's a blessing in everything, even death. We just have to learn to live in gratefulness to see them. I had to learn that there is a silver lining to every situation and to train my mind to always look for that place when I'm feeling angry, sad, lonely, depressed, or any other negatively impactful emotion. Emotions are a natural state of mind that we instinctively resort to as a result of our circumstances. We can't always control our circumstances, but we can learn to control our emotions. If emotion is our natural reaction to circumstances, then we have to learn to react in gratefulness. Shifting to a grateful mindset looks like...I had a tire blowout, but I avoided a tragic accident. My AC at my house is broken, but I still have a roof over my head. I have this medical affliction, but I'm alive to fight and overcome it. I lost my job, but I still have my skill set. There's gratefulness after the but... But God!