Wishing you were somewhere else

From time to time - I wish I was somewhere else.

I know that might shock you, but it is true.

Here's what I know however - we all have those thoughts from time to time.

Those thoughts will come, but it is what you do with those thoughts that count.

I choose to ignore them because after 55 years of living on this planet, I know this:

Life is never greener on the other side of the fence.

If you are dealing with a difficult person, you will face people like that wherever you go.

If you are dealing with a difficult situation, you will face those same types of situations wherever you go.

Almost all of the time, leaving a situation is hardly ever the answer (although it is another blog entirely on when is the correct time to make a change).

Most of life is filled with "ups and downs", times of extreme victory and times of extreme defeat.

A key is to look at everything as objectively as you can.

Have a "hang in there" person in your life.  Someone that will continually encourage you not to leave.

Trust that God has a purpose for you in that situation.

Know that the difficult person or situation might be just what God is using to develop you in your walk with Him - and that if you leave - you will face the same situation (or person) over and over again until the lesson is learned.

It all comes down to attitude and how I choose to look at what is happening to me. 

God is more concerned with what is happening in me than the is in what is happening to me.

Now then, before I leave you, let me share with you a story that I tell over and over and over again. 

It not only is one of my favorite stories to tell - but it is a story that I have internalized in my own thought life.

St. Thomas Aquinas told of a man who heard about a every special ox and determined to have it for his own. 

He traveled all over the world.  He spend his entire fortune.  He heave his whole life to the search for this ox.

At last, just moments before he died, he realized that he had been riding it all the time.

Consider this:  that marriage, that job, that house, that neighborhood, that church, that "whatever" might be just where God wants you to be.

Just a thought for a Thursday.