Strategy 9: Walk In Victory

Hi everyone! I’m Carol Diane and THIS is Happiness Reclaimed. You were born for the pursuit of happiness which means rising toward your potential mentally, physically, and spiritually, living a life of love with deep meaning and purpose. We’re leaving behind the  emotional stress, bad health, and empty spirituality of today, to practice powerful life strategies in a mind-body-spirit approach to wellness. It’s time to reclaim your life. Let’s go.

Today we’re covering Powerful Strategy #9, Walk in Victory.  Everything I’m about to say is for educational purposes only and at no time am I telling you what to do in a specific situation. Only you can decide what’s right for you in a given moment. Your participation in any way with the Happiness Reclaimed organization signifies your understanding of, and agreement with, these terms.

When we’re able to start walking in victory, we’ve grown our ability to overcome challenges with confidence and resilience.

Life will never be perfect, and we’ll always face challenges, and facing them bravely is exactly what we mean when we talk about a heroic journey. It is a path to success no matter what.  

With this new inner peace and strength derived from Strategies 7 and 8, we live each day with greater calm, greater success, and greater happiness. 

Now, I realize some people prefer to use the word “joy” rather than “happiness.” But the dictionaries I’ve checked consider the two terms as synonymous, and I don’t like it when people start redefining words according to their particular agenda. Let’s not fragment as a society. I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen groups at both ends of the political spectrum start judging people for using a term they think is now undesirable. Let’s not be so judgmental, and let’s try to maintain a shared language with shared definitions of terms. The dictionary is there for good reasons.

Remember that to be truly living is to be voluntarily taking on a challenge. As we step beyond our comfort zone, fear or negative thinking might naturally come. But we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. So we gradually get better and better at relaxing and trusting God. And we become more and more aware that we have within us Holy Spirit power! If that seems like a very strange concept to you, that’s okay. Just hang in there and work with me, and I think you’ll start to understand.

With each of these strategies in the Spirit section, I’m pulling a quotation from a currently popular song, and today our quotation comes from Danny Gokey singing the song “Hope In Front of Me”: 

I’ve seen the dark and the broken places, but I know in my soul no matter how bad it gets
I’ll be all right. There’s hope in front of me. There’s a light—I still see it. There’s a hand still holding me even when I don’t believe it.

That’s the kind of assurance I’m talking about here. Even when we have a moment of weakness, and we don’t have much faith at all, there’s still something there, and we need to remember that. One thing we learn in authentic Christianity is that human thoughts and feelings are not 100% reliable, and science proves that to be true also, so no one IMO should really try to argue with that. It doesn’t mean we’re always wrong. It means we need to remember that humility from Strategy No 7. We are not infallible gods. We’d better have some healthy skepticism about our own thoughts and emotional reactions. Anything else can lead to danger and perhaps even evil. 

All of these ideas and suggestions and thought processes are easier said than done, believe me, I know, especially when fear come busting down our door, but our faith can see us through the hard times, if we keep reaching out. We’ll also have mountaintop moments where we feel we’ve finally arrived, we’ve conquered our negative mindset, we’ve transformed our minds, and we can even feel euphoric about life.  

But we all know those mountaintop moments tend not to last as long as we’d like. But no matter what, there’s a Presence and a Strength that we can call upon and rely upon, and that’s why we walk in victory. 

Remember that success is not the ABSENCE of trouble—it’s the strength to face that inevitable trouble in life, and face it courageously and with greater inner peace and relaxed confidence. This growth takes time. But hang in and you will start to realize you’re making progress.  

In my book Happiness Reclaimed, I offer a list of potential agreements, and now I would say that those agreements help to describe what could be true for us when we’re walking in victory. It’s not a complete list, but it’s a start:

1. Fresh Vision: We’re taking a fresh look at our problems, seeing a path beyond, and breaking old chains: “No! We’re not doing this anymore!”
2. Taking One Step: We turn desire into success by starting with just one simple change.
3. Perseverance: We keep walking down this new road, step by step. We don’t hand anyone the power to discourage us, but we heed wise warnings. We hold onto ANY blessing with an attitude of gratitude and let that sustain us for now. 
4. Freedom of Thought: We exercise our right and responsibility to think for ourselves and give others that same respect.  
5. The Ripple Effect: We are people who make a difference, as one life touches a life that touches a life that touches a life: We build trust by keeping our word and being transparent and authentic. We work to be precise, thorough, and judicious in our speech. We practice self-sacrifice. We recognize our potential to turn the world upside down!
6. Transformation: We are now freed from perfectionism and self-condemnation. We see our tremendous worth as children of God along with our wounds and shortcomings. Only the full truth sets us free. We listen for “that still small voice” and allow God’s Word to transform us.  
7. The Healthy Middle: We strive for the healthy middle for all of life’s choices.      
8. Empathy: We work to understand and accept the feelings of others. We don’t always agree, but we take time to see how they see it and feel how they feel it. THEIR feelings are as important as ours.  
9. Conflict Management: We take “the plank” out of our own eye and purify our hearts as we learn conflict resolution skills. We seek the best for everyone, endeavoring to lovingly influence but not control. We leave room for God to work. We’re on a path to greater closeness and REAL peace. 
10. Forgiveness: We see with new eyes, piece the story together, and gain greater understanding, while also accepting that some things will never make sense here on Earth. We demolish the lie that forgiveness means enabling, condoning, or forgetting. Forgiveness limits the power of evil and removes the poison that will kill us.  
11. Taking Every Thought Captive: We work to dwell on things that are lovely, admirable, or praiseworthy. We learn from the past and try to recognize evil when it confronts us today, but we refuse to stay stuck in the past or obsess about the future. Our battlefield is in our own minds, and we cling to the power of the Word as our weapon.
12. Effective Parenting: We offer guidance in a loving and positive way, while knowing we’re capable of mistakes. We realize kids will test our boundaries but we stand strong to help them accept “no.” We respect one another and stand united for the sake of our children.  
13. Financial Maturity: We take responsibility for stewarding our funds wisely, which helps the entire family practice gratitude, contentment, generosity, sharing, and self-sacrifice.
14. Appreciating Life: We seek to treasure every moment, slowing down and being fully present.
15. High-Quality Healthcare: We ask that ALL doctors promote healthy habits, gain up-to-date knowledge of both research and clinical experience in their specialty worldwide, and be freed to devote more time to each patient.  
16. Holistic Health: We advocate for optimal health for everyone through healthy habits and natural solutions using the biological truth that has existed for thousands of years. The power rests with us, the consumers! We live out the truth that the mind, body, and spirit are amazingly interconnected.

That’s a pretty long list, and maybe we won’t agree on all of those. And we shouldn’t try to tackle all of them at once. Changing habits is not easy. Keep things simple, be patient, and grant yourself grace. But I hope they give you some good ideas.

Be sure to check out the Links page of my website HappinessReclaimed.com, for all kinds of materials that will help you learn more.  

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If you have any questions at all, please contact me at HappinessReclaimed.com. I’ll try to answer those questions in a future broadcast. So that’s it for today. Love ya guys.