Yet there is a great danger in letting our thoughts roam free. Life isn't all sunflowers and sunrises. There are thorns to the rose and a chill to the night. When life throws us a curve our thoughts often turn dark. We find ourselves asking why and ignoring any answer given. We complain and gripe without relenting.
It's easy to blame others, it's easy to say that our pain is their fault. if only they hadn't been so.....But that's dangerous. More dangerous than grabbing a rose without checking for thorns first. When we make others the cause of our pain we abscond any responsibility we have for our own feelings, actions, and emotions.
Yes, emotions can come hard and fast and often catch us by surprise. But what we do with our emotions is entirely our choice. And words are often the outlet for that choice.
Today I was thrown a curveball. I didn't see it coming and it honestly felt like it came from first base, not the pitcher's mound. And that is all I'm going to say negatively about it. Instead I will choose to focus on the positive. I respect the person who threw it for being courageous to say what they needed to say. I appreciate their kindness in listening as my jumbled thoughts tried to find some semblance of meaning. They respected me enough to tell me and honored me by trusting that I would handle the curveball well (or at least as well as I could).
Is it that courage, kindness, & respect that I wish to recognize through my words here. And, because a single blog post won't be enough to process my emotions on this, whatever words I write in the following book are also meant to honor the other person. I've found that it is only where grace and love abound that we can begin to appreciate what God has done for us. May the hunger we have for knowing God continually grow at His command and lead us to love others as we are loved.