One morning I woke up feeling so happy and blessed. Although I had to work a 10 hour shift, I was upbeat and just feeling good about life. Everyone I talked to at work that day benefited from my good mood. My day flew by and the end of my shift came quickly. That night, I became restless and I didn't sleep well. When I woke the next day, I was the total opposite of how I was the day before. I became anxious as this strange weight fell on me. I started seeing the negative in everything, my co-workers, my family and my friends. I called all of my loved ones, and they were all fine. I had just paid all my bills, so there were no threats of my living situation. I actually had to take a moment from work to just sit. I then heard God tell me, "Daughter, why are you worrying? He said to me, "A year ago, you asked me to change your situation. Look around you." At that moment, I put on gospel praise music and I began to praise the Lord in my home alone. I began to remember where I was at emotionally, physically and financially a year ago. Then I looked around, and I saw I was in my new home, with new things. These are all material things, but it was God that brought me thru to allow me to have these material things. I am blessed, in that I have a job in which that I can take with me wherever I go. I have children that are independent, sucessful, responsible, healthy and good young adults men, even in this crazy world. Although I have lost both my parents, brothers, neice, nephew, and close friends, I was still here, standing. I realized that God had blessed me, and He allowed all of these trials because He trusted me to bear them. He knew I would not buckle under the pressure. He knew that while in my trials, I would give Him praise, and when He brought me thru, I'd give Him all the honor, glory and praise.
Now He told me, don't let the devil steal your joy. He was challenging me to learn to FORGIVE and to start telling my story. I'm such a private person about my personal trials that even my closest friends had no idea of what I was going thru. But that was ok, because I turned to God and asked Him to bring me thru. No one else needed to know. While standing in my kitchen, I began to praise God. I started thanking Him for my trials, I started thanking Him for bringing me thru my situations, and I had a few. I started thanking Him for giving me a second chance and a change of heart.