Recovery Is a Choice

You may not have had a choice in your losses, but you do have a choice in your recovery. You can choose what attitude you will have about your experiences. There are two basic attitudes to choose from. The first is one of bitterness and defeat—emotions that can stay with you for the rest of your life. The second attitude is one where you choose to work through your feelings and learn how to be a better person and what steps you should take to get there.

Which attitude will you choose? Bitterness and defeat, or working through your problems and learning from them?

"That's when I realized I either had to choose to die or I had to choose to come through this," says Sue. "It probably would have been easier to die, except for the responsibility of four children. So at that point I said, 'I have to make it,' and I started the uphill battle."

Don says, "I had to get myself out of that pity pot and really focus on where my life needed to be, on the kids and on repairing my life the way that Jesus Christ says to."

Jesus suffered tremendously during his life on earth, but He always chose to see it through because He knew the rewards of moving forward.

"Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God" (1 Peter 4:1-2).