What's Your Impact Story?

The difficulties we face in life can leave us marked with bitterness, frustration and anger, but we can choose to not let that be our story. We will all go through different types of challenges and pain in this life. We have a choice between letting our struggles make our hearts numb, hard and cold or warmer than ever before. We can choose faith, trust and forgiveness in the midst of the challenges that come our way and come out on the other side more compassionate, warm and loving than before. The choice is in our own hands.


In this present world it's impossible to live a pain-free life but we get to choose what will be the end result of our challenges: more love or anger, bitterness and hate. The other side of the coin is that this life is also filled with blessings. We also get to choose what our blessings will do to us. When we receive the favor of God we can either let it make us selfish, arrogant and entitled or humble and loving. Both the challenges and the blessings in life come with a test. Will we choose to let both our good times and hard times in life make us better or more self-centered and prideful?


The key to be able to flourish in this life despite challenges and pain is having a close relationship with God. The key to being able to live a very blessed life without becoming self-obsessed, entitled and arrogant is to know God intimately. If we live our lives without knowing God it is natural for us to become self-centered, entitled and full of pride. Everything we do (or choose not to do) in this life matters. Pastor Holly Wagner from Oasis Church in LA teaches a great message in this video and mentions 3 simple things we can do to make an impact during this life:

1.) Be yourself

2.) Be salt

3.) Be light

How we view our problems matters

When we are in a season of confusion and pain in life our perspective becomes very important. God's perspective and my own perspective will be very different. Most of the time I aim for an easy and trouble-free life so it's not surprising that I get frustrated when I hit a roadblock in life. When I find myself in a painful season in life it's always tempting to blame somebody else for my pain, but I can make the choice to let the circumstance make me better rather than bitter. What looks like a problem to me might just be God's provision for my life. What may look like a failure to me might just be what God brought into my life as the training ground where he will make me stronger and better than before.


Pastor Charlotte Gambill from Life Church in England teaches us what we can do when we find ourselves in a confusing and painful season in life. The thing that can save us during a difficult season is the people we surround ourselves with. When we are going through a painful season we are always tempted to isolate ourselves, but in isolation we will only get more angry, more frustrated and more sad. We need to surround ourselves with people who won't only tell us what we would like to hear, but the things we need to hear. It's also important to not let certain people speak into our lives during a painful and confusing season in life. There will always be people who will be quick to tell us why we don't have what it takes to overcome the challenge we are faced with. We need to make the choice to surround ourselves with people who can encourage us during the difficult seasons of life, not people who add discouragement and help us stay stuck in life.


It's important to remember that although the problems we face in life can be really frustrating God's perspective is much bigger than ours.What we view as our life's biggest mistake might just be what God will use to shape us into someone who can help others more than someone who hasn't made that particular mistake in life. What we view as a threat to our plan for the future might just be God redirecting us toward a direction that will bring more good things to our lives than we could ever imagine.


Josef's story in the Bible is one filled with roadblocks but God used all the hard stuff in Josef's life to build incredible character in him. Josef was quite arrogant as a young man but after years of struggle he had become a man of great character and integrity and that's when God gave him a very influential role in the land. Josef's older brothers viewed Josef as a problem and decided to get rid of him, little did they know that the same person they viewed as a problem was going to one day save their lives. Perspective changes everything. If we keep staring at our problems all we will ever see is pain and hardship. We can choose to lift our eyes and trust that God is working in all things for the good of those who love Him. What the enemy sent our way to try to destroy us God can turn around and use it for good.

I Can Handle It

I love this video! Every time I'm starting to get discouraged by my own negative thoughts this video can get me back on track again. I'm reminded that I don't walk through this life alone and that I have access to everything I need to be able to handle every challenge that comes my way in life. This year won't be easy, because life isn't easy, but I can handle it! Future challenges of year 2017, I'm ready for you now!