I’ve heard it many times, perhaps too many to count.
If you are honest with yourself, I’m sure you have to.
When you are presented with lemons, make lemonade.
When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
Pithy statements they may be, but they do describe reality.
When life presents something you are not sure how to handle,
Perhaps you need to think of it not as a negative alone.
Turn it around, and make it a positive. An opportunity is waiting for you.
Recently, a spate of negatives threatened my purposeful peace.
They’ve happened before, and I learned how to handle them.
But when you know it’s coming and there’s nothing you can do,
How do you change it to a positive and make a new opportunity?
For me, and maybe it’s different for you, I must face the negative head-on.
Allow it to unfold, but don’t let it fold you into its lair.
Forewarned is forearmed. Preparing is half the battle.
When it’s a gotcha or a surprise, that’s when you draw on experience.
Maybe you could say it’s all about my attitude.
How do I turn a negative into something good?
When you always let life get in the way of living,
You are saying others have power over you.
Why not change your attitude from negative to positive?
That’s your opportunity!
I’ve learned a lot about a response from legally trained people.
Surprises in a courtroom? Never ask a question you don’t already know the answer.
Being ready is more than half the battle, in all truth.
That’s the critical point when you can snatch away the surprise,
Because you know how to handle it.
There. Negative into a Positive becomes an Opportunity.
How? Are you sure? Why do you know this?
Well, here is something I know…
Solomon said, nothing new under this ol’ sun.
What’s happening now has happened before.
Study, glean, and garner positive steps.
It’s happened before, and it will happen again.
That’s taking the negative, add the positive,
Before you know it, you have a great opportunity.
What kind of opportunity? I’m sure I don’t know.
It’s unique to you, your world, and how you handle it.
Take it all in stride, and don’t let it get you down.
There’s more positive than negative, and that, my friend,
That is your opportunity.
When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said,
“Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him.”
So they sent messengers to Joseph, saying,
“Before your father died he commanded, saying,
‘Thus you shall say to Joseph:
“I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin;
for they did evil to you.”
‘ Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father.”
And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said,
“Behold, we are your servants.”
Joseph said to them,
“Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?
But as for you, you meant evil against me;
but God meant it for good,
in order to bring it about as it is this day,
to save many people alive.
Now therefore, do not be afraid;
I will provide for you and your little ones.”
And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
(Genesis 50:15-21 NKJV)
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