Beginning Wednesday, April 1st, I will be taking part in the Blogging from A-Z Challenge.
During the month of April, I will post 6 days a week and each entry will correlate with a letter of the alphabet.
Perhaps you would like to join. It’s not too late!
Even if my father and mother abandon me, the LORD will hold me close.
-The Bible
Photo credit: Georgie Pauwels / Foter / CC BYLet yourself smile (or laugh) today! You will feel better.
… now you don’t.
Social networking, mainly Facebook, gives us a great way to connect and reconnect.
But there is a downside. Have you ever closed your laptop and felt that twinge of envy because of what someone’s life looks like?
You know what I mean.
You didn’t get many likes.
Someone who has hurt you looks like they are doing just great.
They are on vacation and you can’t afford one.
Her family looks so perfect!
That’s the downside. Recognize it. Because if you’re hurting about something, this can just make you feel worse.
If you want to continue using social networking, you have to remember this one thing: things are not always what they seem.
I don’t know why we do this, but we really believe what we see as truth. It isn’t always an honest assessment of how someone is really doing. That post is just a snapshot of one moment.
That’s not to say that we shouldn’t learn to be happy for people – to celebrate with them.
It means that we’re human and we are prone to being hurt.
Learn to use social networking with your eyes open.
If you can’t, consider taking a break from it or keeping a small network of friends.
Like?
“First of all,” he said, “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … “
“Sir?”
” … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
-To Kill a Mockingbird
Photo credit: Thomas Leuthard / Foter / CC BYWalk a mile in someone else’s shoes today.
We live in a time when everything is analyzed.
All of our physical, emotional, or mental abilities (or lack of) don’t always have to be measured.
So on a particular day, you’re tired, or feeling blue. Do you reach for something to make you feel better?
Because sometimes, we just get up out of the wrong side of the bed. It’s not complicated.
But if we are always analyzing – wondering if we are “okay” – living to our fullest potential 24/7, we won’t put up with the down times that inevitably come with being human.
Today, just be human.
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Photo credit: Tess Mayer / Foter / CC BY-ND
It’s understandably easy to focus on all that goes wrong in our lives. Especially when one thing after another goes wrong. Especially when you know you’ve worked really hard at something, only to have it taken away.
We all have moments like this in life. It’s important, especially these days with social networking (e.g Facebook, Twitter) where everyone has a platform and an audience, to not compare yourself with others. Because that snapshot of their day is not indicative of them being better off than you.
Let me say it again: that snapshot of their day is not indicative of them being better off than you.
Where is your focus? You get to choose, you know.
Focus begins with those moments throughout the day that give us a smile or a memory. You know, the little things.
When I see a new bird show up at the feeder, this makes me happy. I can have so much on my mind, and yet, this little bird makes time stop and all is well.
When the colors begin to pop up through the last traces of melted snow, this makes me happy.
All of us are surrounded by creation and we are wired to respond. Summer nights watching the dotted flashes of orange glow in the meadow, the pitter-patter of rain lulling us off to sleep, and do we ever get tired of looking at sunsets?
Focusing on the beauty is not denying the existence of ugliness. It’s choosing to believe the beauty is there for a reason. Otherwise God would not have put it there.
It gives us hope. It helps us trust.
And it’s the true snapshot of eternal life with God.
All of us have experiences we build upon.
There are all kinds of stories of people who survived an accident or beat an illness. They are ecstatic. And they should be!
The frailty of life and imminent death becomes a reality.
In Christian churches, there’s a lot of good experiences and people give testimonies of answered prayer and how God came through.
But I’ve always wondered about those who didn’t get their prayer answered and how they think God did not come through.
When you’re sitting in front of the television or in a church service, and you hear how an individual’s life was spared from cancer or unscathed in an accident, and they attribute God with the credit, (e.g. “I guess God’s not done with me yet”), I can’t help but think of someone who did die and wonder, “Was God done with them? Why didn’t God want h/she to live?”
If we think “input-output” (I prayed, God answered), there’s got to be an answer both ways.
I am sincerely happy and inspired when individuals thank God for what he has done for them. I just want to know how to help people who feel left out.
Are you one of those people? I know how you feel. While I have much to be thankful for, there have been some real confusing and difficult areas that have left me disappointed and hurt. The only way I’ve been able to come to terms with the pain is to trust God with it.
You are not the first to hurt and you won’t be the last. Life is hard and we learn to look at it with optimism since life has some very wonderful moments, too. The only way you can have this outlook is knowing God sees the end from the beginning. It won’t last, only to have a positive outlook. It has to be based in something solid.
We either trust God. Or we don’t.
It takes time to develop trust. God knows this.
When you trust, you rest.
When we look out into the night sky, we are breathless at its beauty.
There is Someone over that magnificence. There has to be.
God.
when it hurts 