Karol Ladd - Positive Life Principles for Women: 8 Simple Secrets to Turn Your Challenges Into Possibilities

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

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Karol Ladd is published in association with the literary agency of the Steve Laube Agency, LLC, 5025 N. Central Ave. #635, Phoenix, AZ 85012.

POSITIVE LIFE PRINCIPLES FOR WOMEN

Copyright 2013 by Karol Ladd

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

ISBN 978-0-7369-5011-4 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-5012-1 (eBook)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Contents

Despise not the desert.

There is where God polishes his brightest gems.

R.A. T ORREY

Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

2 C ORINTHIANS 4:17

I f you are the type of person who hopes to learn from your mistakes and become stronger despite adversity, then this book is for you. We all stumble and make some not-so-great decisions now and then. Most of us face occasional and unexpected difficulties, but success in life is not based on how many potholes we fall into, but rather on how we learn and grow as we climb out of them.

The most positive people I know are the ones who take their blunders and challenges and turn them around to be stepping-stones for growth, change, and maturity. They choose to become better people as they work through glitches and jump over hurdles. To be quite honest, most of the strengths in my own life have developed as a result of the life lessons learned from the less-than-perfect scenarios in my life. In every mistake, every disappointment, and every trial, there are always new life principles to be gleaned and discovered in the process. These lessons can serve to make us wise, confident, and positive women.

What This Book Can Do for You

Each chapter in this book highlights a positive life principle you can apply to your life in a practical and personal way. The principles are gathered from the slightly imperfect lives of women in the Bible, as well as examples from people around us today. The transforming truths that can be learned from examples in the Bible reach to every age, faith, and social status. We can easily relate to the women whose stories were written centuries ago because, although society has changed, the needs of women have been constant. As women, we want to feel loved. We have fears, worries, and concerns. All women face discouragements at times. We often find ourselves dealing with difficult people. There are times of life when we grow tired and weary, and we tend to get down on ourselves quite easily.

This book is intended to bring hope, refreshment, and renewal to your slightly imperfect life. No one has her life all together, so lets get rid of that image in our minds. Lets not waste time wishing for what could have beenrather, lets take what we have and make it into the best it can be. Although adversities and disappointments may seem like a surprise to us, God is not surprised at all. He has a plan that goes beyond our frustrations, and He can transform our slightly imperfect situations into beautiful new landscapes. We can trust His goodness and faithfulness for the details of our lives. Life may not be good, but God is! He is a redeeming God, and He can bring beauty from ashes.

Taking Positive Steps

If your life is not the perfect picture you had planned, hold on to the hope and beauty of what you can learn as you press on in your journey. The enduring truths throughout these pages will give you inspiration and encouragement to make positive steps forward in your life. Each chapter ends with a Positive Life Strategy offering you a powerful truth, a plan of action to implement in your own life, and a Pay It Forward idea to reach out and bless someone elses life as a result of what you learned. Ive also added an applicable verse to memorize so that you can carry the truths from this book with you continually throughout your life.

Even though this is a great individual read, you will also find that it makes a perfect group study. Ive added a few discussion questions at the end of each chapter if you want to read it together with others. In the back you will find a quick reference to the eight positive life principles you learn in this book, as well as a few additional books I recommend. My prayer is that as you apply the powerful principles in this book, you will also be a positive influence in the lives of those around you, elevating them to greater heights as well. Never underestimate the powerful ways God can use a positive woman to make a lasting difference in this world.

There are no lessons so useful as those learned in the school of affliction.

J.C. R YLE

If you would voyage Godward, you must see to it that the rudder of thought is right.

W.J. D AWSON

Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirableif anything is excellent or praiseworthythink about such things.

P HILIPPIANS 4:8

W hat seems to be growing in the garden of your mind right now? Wouldnt it be wonderful if the thoughts in our minds resembled a lovely, well-kept garden full of refreshing, hope-filled thoughtsthoughts that always saw the best in others, our circumstances, and ourselves? The secret garden of our minds can flourish with vibrant, enriching colors, but so often the dull, monotonous weeds of discouragement, despair, and self-doubt seem to crowd out good and truthful thoughts. If we are not careful the weeds can take over our mind-gardens and we can grow into bitter, negative, joyless people. Thankfully, we can learn to be attentive to our thought life and the things our minds tend to dwell on. It is possible to weed out negative thinking and nurture life-giving truths instead.

Each day, seedling thoughts are continually planted in our mindssome good and some not-so-great. A critical family member, a hurtful co-worker, a past mistake, a frustrating disappointment can begin to dominate our minds and completely discourage us if we let it. Its easy to default to the negative. It happens quite naturally, just like weeds. Thats why we must be diligent caretakers of our minds, planting good, healthy seeds and not allowing weeds of negativity and doubt to take over our brains. A.W. Tozer said, What we think about when we are free to think about what we willthat is what we are or will soon become. In other words, our thoughts soon become our actions. The mind is a powerful tool, and we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds.