So, I was heading into a coffee shop recently and I saw a woman, through the glass doors, holding a tray of coffees and a couple of small bags, presumably some yummy treats. There was no way she was going to manage the door so I swiftly opened the door and held it open for her. She thanked me and proceeded through the open door. Just as she made it outside the strap of the purse she was carrying slipped off her shoulder causing her arm to jerk and with that her entire purchase tumbled onto the sidewalk. She looked back at me and said, without skipping a beat, “That’s the story of my life.”

Have you ever heard anyone say that? Have you? People usually say that after some mishap. But when I thought about it, what a terrible way to define ones life story.

The Apostle Paul, in Romans chapter 12, tells us how to tell and articulate a better story of our lives.

2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

This is such a powerful verse. It is gives us a clue to how we might get to the will of God, that I believe we all secretly want. Paul says it is going to be proved in our lives as we learn to think and speak the actual story of our lives. He says, to have your mind renewed, transformed and revolutionized - think caterpillar becoming butterfly - we have to think differently. You see it is of this world to see a bad thing happen and say, “that’s the story of my life”. It’s negative thinking, it’s being pulled down to this low level.

The thing is, we can’t live right if we don’t think right. That’s why the bible puts a huge emphasis on how we think. None of us wake up in the morning and say ‘I want to have a bad day’ but at times we allow that kind of negative thought to move us toward the very type of day we don’t want to have.

So today, let’s work on our thoughts being pulled toward heaven. Keep telling yourself the actual story, the Gospel story, that you are loved, you are cherished, you are valued, that you are a child of the king. That is the story of your life!

You may think, ‘well Mona, that is just half glass full, half glass empty kind of thinking’. I beg to differ, your glass is not half empty, your glass in not half full, in Jesus’ name your cup is overflowing!