We all have days, weeks, or sometimes even months when we feel sad due to unexpected things that occur in our life. A feeling of sadness is normal, especially during the loss of someone we love. Sickness, financial difficulties, or relationships that have gone sour can also cause us to feel sad. However, if those feelings linger too long, despair and depression can take over. God’s Word has plenty to say on this topic. For instance, one of my favorite Bible verses, which is found in Proverbs 17:22 (NIV) says: “A cheerful heart is good medicine; but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

We don’t feel well emotionally, or physically, when we are sad all the time. It’s harder to function when despair sets in. Positive thoughts are replaced with negative ones, and a feeling of hopelessness can drag us down spiritually.

The Bible also has something to say about what we should do when sadness lingers too long or we are in a negative mood. Philippians 4:8 (KJV) says: “Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report: if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

Here’s what I do when I’m absorbed in sadness for too long: I pray, spend time in God’s Word, sing praise songs, spend time with positive people who make me smile and laugh, and focus on beautiful things God created, like a sunrise, sunset, birds chirping happily in my yard, and the list goes on.

What do you do when sadness takes over for too long? Is there something special that brings joy back into your life?

As the days keep moving on in this New Year, and I work on my next book, scheduled to come out later this year, it’s easy to get overwhelmed when things go wrong or there are too many interruptions. Sometimes other issues pop up that need my attention, and it temporarily slows my writing schedule down. If you’re wondering how I deal with it and still manage to get everything done, it’s fairly simple—I take one day at a time. Sometimes, it’s one hour at a time, or even one minute at a time. We aren’t promised tomorrow, but it’s what we do today that counts.

In Matthew 6:34 (KJV), it says, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.”

How do you deal with the challenges of life? Have you learned to take one day at a time, or do you worry about tomorrow and wonder how you’ll get everything done?

With a New Year beginning, and an old year left behind, it’s sometimes easier to focus on a person’s regrets about not doing all the things they had planned to do in the previous year. Or some might dwell upon the regrets of not doing or saying what they should have in the old year, rather than focusing on the opportunity to say or do things in a better way during the New Year.

After losing my husband last summer, which I’m sure, is part of the grieving process, there have been a few times when I’ve thought about some things I could have said or done differently over the years, or even during the days shortly before his passing. But then, I must call myself up short, knowing that I did my best, and so I change my focus to remembering many of the good times we had together, and how we kept the promises we had made to each other when we said our wedding vows. I also think about the last words Richard and I spoke to each other, less than 24 hours before his death. We kissed one final time, and both said, “I love you.” That is most certainly worth focusing on, don’t you think?

How about you? Are you looking forward to what lies ahead in the New Year, and leaving any regrets from the previous year behind?

In Philippians 3:13&14, this is what God’s Word says about regrets: “but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”