Note: This post was inspired by my divorce and emotional healing years ago. I hope it illustrates the choice we have whether to be bitter or better. Although the choice is ours, the Lord completes the process and provides the healing. It is truly astonishing what the Lord can accomplish in us when we allow it.
It has been a long, hard winter here in Oklahoma and in many other locations. The early blooming flowers are such a welcome sight. Usually when I first notice my early bloomers, the flower beds still have the old, dead vegetation and a carpet of old leaves. Then, I have the incentive to clear them out as I do not want the new growth hindered. Also, I can view two flower beds from my kitchen windows and it is difficult to see the new flowers appearing through the old vegetation, which is also unsightly.
We all have winter periods in our lives that sometimes last months or years, but spring always comes. Particularly when emerging from hurtful situations with other people, such as a divorce, it is best to take what we can learn out of the situation and go forward without dwelling on what has transpired. It reminds me of the flower beds - embrace the new season and get rid of the dead, useless, and unsightly stuff (our negative emotions, unforgiveness, bitterness) that may hinder us. Voltaire stated "Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us."
With the Lord's assistance during and emerging from a winter season is the cleanest way one can come through. By prayer and reading the Bible (I especially like the Psalms during difficult times), He will heal your hurts and wounds and clear out the unsightly stuff. While you may feel like a dead, dry, brittle flower, He will help you have the ability to bloom again.
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on. . . Philippians 3:14 NIV
This post is linked to Spiritual Sundays at http://www.bloggerspirit.blogspot.com
