breathe.or.bleed

I know, I know... I haven't posted in almost a month. My bad!, but I realized something today...

Over a year ago I came up with this little saying:

"are.we.still.breathing.or.bleeding.with.a.heart.on.this.sleeve"

I thought maybe I could eventually turn it into song lyrics or something, but little did I know that God would use it to teach me something! Recently my life has been on a rollercoaster of ups and downs, but through all the down times I have a tendency to really look for all the bad in everything and never any of the good. I may put on a tough face and act like everything is great, but inside it's eating me up.

So yesterday I was talking to one of my closest friends and I said to him "I really wish I could just get over myself!". This morning God brought breathe.or.bleed back into my mind and that's when I realized that I can get over myself!

We can either keep breathing and move forward in a situation, keeping our eyes up and focused on Him or we can bleed in a since, feeling sorry for ourselves and bring down everyone around us. I say we because I hope that as I share, everyone that reads these posts will become encouraged and be able to live an abundant life with Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord.

is your life beautiful?

I was listening to "Life is Beautiful" by SIXX:A.M. just a little while ago and realized that Nikki Sixx had the right idea when he wrote this passage in his diary. Nikki Sixx former Bassist of Mötley Crüe had an extremely successful career of rock stardom, but in his personal life he had a huge death wish with hard drugs (overdosing several times during that period of his life). Nikki was actually pronounced dead by paramedics after one ordeal, but was lucky enough to be revived with adrenaline shots. In SIXX:A.M. his most recent band he pulled out his diary from his Mötley Crüe days, took several passages and excerpts, and created SIXX:A.M.'s "The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack". The excerpt below is from the hit single "Life is Beautiful" from that album:

"Just open your eyes

Just open your eyes

And see that life is beautiful.

Will you swear on your life,

That no one will cry at my funeral?"

-SIXX:A.M.

As I was listening to this I realized that not only was it an inspiring and motivating statement, but it was exactly what I wanted for my life. I know that many funerals I have been to have been a time of sorrow for the loss of a loved one, but I want people to be rejoicing for the awesome things that God has done in my life, through my life, and in the lives of the ones around me. It's time to do something with my life...