Is it time to reframe some things?

Now that you spent some time reflecting through your photo album for 2019, I am sure that there were moments that you would like to have forgotten. Some heartaches that came along with the sunshine. Do not forget that it is a mix of both sun and rain that allows the flowers to bloom. So the rain, thunderstorms, tsunamis that come are a normal part of life. It’s life.

However, the stormy weather comes with a purpose. As I mention in my book, Stormy Weather: Twenty-five Lessons Learned While Weathering the Storms of life, every storm has a purpose. Sometimes it is to teach us something we do not know or to give us something that we do not have but will need as life moves on. These are valuable lessons that we risk missing if we become stuck on the details of our situations. These lessons are priceless. And the Most High knows that there are some lessons that we can’t learn without some stormy weather, or else our flowers would dry up and die!

I say all of this to say, as you reflect over 2019, do not miss the valuable lessons about your life because you are stuck on the details of the situation that something did not happen as you had planned, hoped, or prayed about. 

How do you do this?

By reframing, which is a technique used in therapy to help create a different way of looking at a situation, person, or relationship by changing its meaning. It helps you to change what you have control over – your perspective.

How do you reframe something from a negative into a positive? Three simple, but not always easy steps:

  1. Pray to Yahweh for His Holy Spirit to help you. When you are hurt, and your emotions are all tangled up, you cannot reframe without the power of the Holy Spirit. For example, to reframe a loss of a loved one from, “I am grieving, and missing my loved one” to “Yah, thank you for the life of my loved one and the memories that we shared,” cannot happen without some supernatural power.
  2. Focus on gratitude. Remember, this means recognizing the good that is around you. While the situation may be extremely hurtful, there is something good in it, even if it is the consistency of Yah’s love and provision through it all, which by the way, is HUGE!
  3. Speak the positive and not the negative. Now that you have reframed, you cannot keep on speaking negatively about the situation, the person, the relationship because it defeats the whole purpose.

Life will always be a mix of sunshine and rain. But have you ever noticed that even when it is pouring down rain and the storms are raging, the sun always ends up shining again at some point? Perhaps it is because Yah said, all things work together for the good of those who love Him.