'The Sunny Side of Life'

Are you living on the sunny side of life?

To live on the sunny side of life is to live life with a good attitude and a positive outlook . It is choosing to see the glass as half full instead of half empty and to see the silver lines around the clouds. While reading a book by Oral Roberts one sentence simply jumped off the page and stuck in my head, the sentence was 'Change your outlook and live on the sunny side of life'. Basically it is a decision that must be made that says regardless of what is happening or how I am feeling I will rejoice in the Lord always (Philippians 4:4).

So what are the benefits of choosing to live on the sunny side of life? Proverbs 17: 22 states that a cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength. We feel better when we have had a good belly laugh, when we are around people who make us laugh and when we think about things that puts a smile on our face. I have heard it said that we use up far more energy frowning than we do smiling. Research has also shown that when people laugh, their brains release endorphins, a compound that suppresses pain, so do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8: 10).

I could reel off a whole pile of statistics and stories of people who despite horrific situations, depression, sickness, death of loved ones determined in their heart to defy all the odds that were stacked against them and lived on the sunny side of life, but I think it is more important that we stop and take a look at ourselves. We must look at where God has brought us from, look at the things he has delivered us out of, remember the addictions we used to have, the weaknesses, the illnesses and give Him thanks that we are not there anymore. If you feel that God didn't have to deliver you from anything because maybe you grew up in a Christian family, then thank God that despite all the terrible things that are going on in the world He managed to keep you from them all.

Find any reason to give God thanks, find any reason to be grateful regardless of how small or how insignificant it may seem give God thanks. The bible says that it is better to sit on the top of the roof than be with a moaning complaining person. So if you want to maintain the presence of God around you continually praise Him and love on Him (Ps 16:11).

You might be facing something(s) that totally negates you even contemplating living on the sunny side of life but remember that the Bible gives us specific instructions to cast all our cares on Jesus because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7) and when you cast them it is like throwing a fishing net into the sea the only difference is that we are not going to retrieve it, it has gone forever.

To live on the sunny side of life doesn’t mean that you will never face hardships and difficulties, it means that you resolve in your heart to be as stalwart as the prophet Micah who said "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me". Don't be bothered by the number of times you fall or the amount of setbacks you face, understand it is your ability to get up brush yourself off and get back in the race that counts, for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again (Proverbs 24:16).

Viktor E. Frankl states ‘The last of human freedoms - the ability to choose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances’ so make the choice today to make your residence 123 Sunny Side.

Images: Flowers