Your actions & attitudes determine that of those around you

After my last post, I received a lot of emails offering me prayers, support and encouragement. It was touching and overwhelming. I was very appreciative that God loved me so much that He chose to bless me with such wonderful sisters in Christ.
As I read the thoughts and concerns of others, I felt that I must share what I've learned & how I have been blessed.
At the end of the last post you will remember that I stated "Things did not change between my husband & I, he was still elusive & non attentive toward me, but I knew that I had turned him over to the only one who could change him from the inside out." This seems to have been something that several people focused on. I'd like to share that though things did NOT change for my husband & I THAT NIGHT, as the Psalmist says: " Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning." (Psalm 30:5) And joy DID indeed come with the morning.
The greatest thing the Lord has blessed me with regarding my husband is that he has a heart for God & receives conviction. I believe a lot of the fruit of that has come from my own conviction & submission. When I turn things over to God & change my attitude, I am stepping out in faith that I trust God, not myself, to change things. My attitude changes, and I receive peace. When I walk in that peace, my attitude shows it, and those around me feed off of it. Likewise, when I have an attitude of anger & mistrust, those around me feed off of that too.
When I chose to trust in God to take care of my husband, I set in motion a spiral of change. If you knew my husband, you would know that the changes in him since we were first married could never have taken place without his conviction & submission. I believe that if I had tried to change him, he would have fought it to the end. That is the sad truth about the sinful nature, it fights against what's right.
So the "morning after" my husband received revelations of his own, and began his own journey of further change. Realizing that his commitment to his family was more important than his job, he tweaked some small changes to make himself more available. The change in his attitude made me very happy, for I knew that God would bring about the necessary changes to get my husband back where he needed to be.
Change is inevitable, nothing stays the same. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 teaches us that there is a season for everything.
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

With that in mind I encourage you to develop this attitude: Enjoy what you have when you have it because you never know when you will lose it. Likewise, persevere when you are being "buffeted" because assuredly this will not last. Always claim the promise of 1 Corinthians 10:13:
"No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to us all. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it"

God IS faithful, my friend, and the changing of your attitude WILL bring about change. Your submission to God will influence the attitudes & actions of all of those around you. Philippians 2:5 says: "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus" Get to know Him and see how lining your attitude up with His will bring about the greatest change you have ever seen!


God bless you as you become more like Him!