Focus Friday: Let’s Focus on Ups and Downs

You may notice that I’m blogging at a new site this week. You can still find all of my previous blog posts over at robynmulder.blogspot.com, but from now on I’ll be posting here at robynmulder.com.

It’s exciting – and scary. I’ve had a few ups and downs as I’ve worked at getting things up and running here, and I’m sure there will be more of that in the future.

That’s okay.

We have to remember that life is pretty much an equal balance of positive and negative things. (I learned that from Brooke Castillo.) If we can accept that, we’ll be happier.

It doesn’t seem to make sense, I know, but it really is true.

The ups and downs are all a part of our life. We need to enjoy the ups, realizing that they won’t last forever. We need to endure the downs, knowing that they also won’t last forever.

This week I had trouble getting out of bed again a couple of times. Instead of getting all upset at myself for my “failure,” I decided to chalk it up to an off day and show myself a lot of grace.

The truth is, I deal with depression at times. I had been feeling good and getting up on time for quite a while, but then I had a couple of days where I thought too much, dreaded my tasks for the day, and hid for a while.

Instead of staying in that downward spiral (minor though it was), I had to make the choice to think better, talk to Gary, and do some things to turn it around.

All of us experience the ups and downs of life. No one escapes them.

Mental health, physical health, spiritual health, school, work, and relationships. All of those areas have an ebb and flow to them. The key to surviving the ups and downs is being deliberate about where we have our focus.

On ourselves, on our situation, on our fears or frustrations? The ups and downs of life will give us whiplash and leave us upset and frazzled.

On God? The ups and downs of life will be more tolerable and we can have an unexplainable peace as we ride them out. Experiencing the downs lets us empathize with others who are experiencing the same things. Enjoying the ups stores up great memories to look back on when we’re going through a harder time.

Try to get more comfortable with the ups and downs this week, my friends.

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, [ups and downs,] day and night will never cease.” (Genesis 8:22 NIV – brackets mine)

Do the ups and downs of life upset you? How can focusing on God help you to get through them with more peace?