Oh, life. Let me tell ya... Some days it's easier than others. There are days where I experience belly aching laughter, my cheeks hurt from smiling so hard, and my heart is about to explode from happiness. The joy I feel from the Lord is overflowing and I hold strong to His promises. These are the windows down, sunglasses on, singing at the top of your lungs kind of days.

On the other hand, there have been moments in my life where I have experienced serious disappointment, unforgettable heartbreak, and life seems to hit me like a brick wall. Nothing seems to be going the way I would like it to and my expectations of my life are not being met. In these moments I tend to feel empty, alone, and exhausted. These days I am surviving, but not necessarily living.

Life.

The best thing about our lives is we get to choose how we want to live them and we get to choose how we want to look at them. The Lord has blessed us with free will and he has given us a heads up that hard things are going to come our way.

I have come to realize that perspective is everything. There is always something to be learned in the process and quite frankly there is a always a different way to look at a situation.

It's actually pretty simple. The moment we decide to make the choice to see our circumstances differently, the moment we set ourselves apart from our circumstances and we do not allow them to define us. There is something so beautiful about experiencing the joy of the Lord in the midst of hard times. Choosing his joy over the feelings this world says we have the right to feel is life altering.

As you wake up tomorrow, take note of your mindset. See it for what it is and if it needs some adjustments... Go for it! Toss those negative thoughts to the curb and replace them with God's truth over your life.

If you want to see all that is wrong with this world and your situation, I guarantee you - you'll find it, that's the easy part. But maybe, just maybe, it's not necessarily your situation that needs to change but simply your thoughts towards it.

It is time to stop making excuses and to start changing our mindset.

You may not be able to change the circumstance you're in, but you can control the way you see it and the attitude you have within it. You never know, it may change your life for the better, and that is a risk worth taking.