Exhale

Do you ever have those moments in life where you feel like you can't breathe? Like you've taken in one big breath and held it while you're waiting for "whatever" to pass by? It's so suffocating. Distracting. It wears away at your peace...attacks your joy.
I would love for all my posts to be humorous, witty and light hearted. But unfortunately, not all of life is like that. (That's what keeps that deep yearning for heaven continual.) There are times in my life where I feel shaken. I feel weakened. People's words hurt. Thoughts and feelings are sometimes better left unsaid. Sometimes I let words roll off my back. And other times I inhale and hold onto them tightly. I feel the need to exhale...and yet I don't. Mostly because I won't. It truly is a choice. And yesterday I made a choice. And today, I made that same choice. And tomorrow, when I wake up I will have to chose again. I will breathe out and rid myself of disappointment, discouragement and self-pity. I will breathe in only the positive and the Truth. I will stand firm in who Christ has created me to be, and I will purpose to continue to change those things about me that are not of Christ. I will redirect my eyes to look only at the eternal, not the temporal. I will choose to see God's hand at work, rather than allow my own emotions to distract me.
People can make you weary. Discontentment breeds. Negativity hovers. Evil communication is a cancer. We humans, in the natural flesh, can be exhausting. It's enough to make you want to breathe in and hold it. For a while. But then I have to make a choice. I can either choose to let tainted air contaminate me and wear away at my flesh...or I can choose to let go and let it all out. There's so much freedom in exhaling.