Victories and Setbacks
Throughout life we all experience victories and setbacks. Sometimes in life it can seem like we go from one disappointment to the next. It can feel like our lives are just full of tragedies, disappointments, and setbacks. This can color our view of life and push us into depression or anger. To combat these emotions, we must learn to celebrate the victories.
Remember the Past
In the Old Testament, the children of Israel are a great example of this very principle. They would start by following God, then they would stop following God, get into trouble, complain about the trouble, and God would deliver them. This pattern was consistent with them and can be with us also. A pattern where we go from one troubling situation to another asking God to help us through each one. One of the reasons that I think they didn’t break this pattern was because they would always focus on the bad situation. They had a hard time celebrating the victories that God had done for them.
They were in slavery in Egypt for 400 years. God delivered them through the 10 plagues that came on Egypt, and then crossed the Red Sea by another miracle of God. Yet, after these great things that God had done for them, when they got hungry they complained and whined about how they would die in the desert. They threatened to go back to slavery because to them, that was better than not having any food. Very quickly they forgot about God bringing them out of slavery, and their focus was entirely on not having any food to eat.
Break the Cycle
To break this type of cycle and change our view, we must learn to celebrate the victories. Celebrate the big and small victories. A victory is a victory. What this does for us is helps us to put our focus on good things rather than being focused on the bad. Being able to see the good things will change our attitude and give us something to look forward to, rather than expecting the bad to always happen to us.
The Light House
How we celebrate the victories is important. Not just that we celebrate them, but that we do something memorable. What we do should be meaningful because it will help us to remember each victory. Celebrating plants that victory in our hearts so in a tough time, we can pull that memory out of hearts to help us through. It is like creating a light house in our heart. When victory seems far away and it’s hard to see through the storm, that light shines to remind us that we will come through the storm.
Begin today to celebrate the victories in your life. We all have victories, big and small, it is up to us to celebrate them.
