...God will never give you more than you can Bear

Sometimes even though you are in the midst of trials and tribulations, God will do something to show you that He is still there, He is listening, and He has not forgotten you. You might call a recent change in a persons' fortunes for the better being at the right place at the right time. I know it is more than that. When something is for you, it has been predestined that you be in that place at that time to receive what is coming to you, whether it be good or bad. When good things happen, thank God. When bad things happen, thank God. He is there. He is listening. He remembers. Unlike us, He doesn't have a short memory.

When you remain positive, even in when things look their worst, you not only help yourself, but you can encourage others. You might be going through hell, but if you look like your on vacation, it may help someone else going through a bad time in their life. They can see that just because your going through something, you don't have to be ho hum and depressed. Just because your going through doesn't mean that you have to look like your circumstances either. Your pain can be deep. It can ruin you if you let it, but you can't. Life is like school. You have to go through things to make it to the next level. Take the bad things in stride, or at least appear to. Take that pain, hurt, despair, and use it to motivate yourself, and others. Turn your pain into Progress...

...now What?

Now that you have aired your thoughts and feelings to God, your wondering what should you do next. Seems that you have run out of options. Things just dont look too terribly great. Its like the weight of the world really has fallen down onto your shoulders. Everywhere you turn there is utter disappointment and a seemingly endless road of dispair. What do you do? Just who exactly do you turn to? The people that should be there in your corner can't be(to no fault of their own) or just plainly refuse to, so now what? It's a hard road to travel and your walking it alone, barefoot at midnight in the rain through the woods. Its cold, lonely, and painful.

People seem to always have all the answers for you when they are not the ones going through your particular hell. Its much easier to fix or see yourself out of a situation when your not the one in it. Sometimes you want to just sock people because they think that they have you and your life all sorted out. You really wish that some of those people could walk just two blocks in your shoes.

What will it take to make things better? The short answer is a miracle. Honestly, it takes a lot of positive reinforcement, goal setting, and productivity to help make things better. Surrounding yourself around positive people and settings also helps. If you have a bunch of depressed people around you all the time, you will be depressed. You can't give up, no matter how tired life makes you. Thats when you ultimately lose. As long as there is breath in your body, you have to keep striving for bigger, better, and greater things no matter how dire your current situation or circumstances are. Nothing worthwhile ever came easy to anyone. If it did, everyone would be millionares and happy. Life is whole lot of trial and error, sometimes mostly error. The goal is to learn from those errors so that you can become a better person. When you think that things are too much to handle, remember, God will never give you more than you can bear...

...an open letter to God

Dear God,

I know that I should be thanking you for the things we deem simple but I don't really feel like it. I know that you are the Creator, and that you are capable but when I look around at my current situation, I find it hard to believe that things can change. I pray. I've been patient. Seems as though for every good thing I do, I get kicked in the nuts twice with a steel toed boot. I'm feeling down and out. Looks like the nice guy is finishing last.

I know what your Word says. I believe in the Bible, but I can't eat it. I'm hungry. The Bible isn't paying my car note, filling up my gas tank, or putting a roof over my head. I know I sound ungrateful but I'm not. You woke me up this morning and I am alive with a reasonable portion of health and strength. I'm thankful for that, but honestly, it's hard to focus on the spiritual when there is so much lacking in the natural. I'm just looking for you to make some things happen. I try to be the best person I can be, but that just doesn't seem to be enough. Even in doing all the right things, I get the short end of the stick. I'm not gonna lie, I could pray a little more, but so could half the Earth.

What I need from you right now is a miracle. I am tired of hearing people say that You can 'fix it' or that they are praying for me. Are You hearing these alleged prayers cause one of two things are happening here. Either these people aren't really praying or You are not listening. Now which one is it?

I want to be faithful to you God, but these situations that you have allowed me to be in make it quite hard to focus. When your stomach is growling cause you haven't eaten today, or your wondering were your going to sleep tonight, it kind of makes it hard to want to go to someones judgemental church to lay down your burdens.

That's another thing. What is up with these alleged 'saints of God'. These folks ain't no more saintly than a stripper sliding down a pole. I'm not looking for the flaws but all I see is a bunch of people faking and prostituting your Word. I thought the church was a place that people could get help when they needed it, like the hospital. Seems to me that this is not the case, in a lot of churches I've been to lately which further adds to my discontent. I don't see people lining up to visit the hospital when they are well cause it's the cool thing to do. Why is it that Your people expect perfection when you walk into the church? Since when did Your house become an exclusive club, everyones wondering.

Look God, I love you and I know you love me, but please hear what I am saying. Life is HARD. I believe in You and Your Word and when I pray, I expect results, just like you expect me to pray and worship You. These are just my thoughts, but You knew them before I was even created. I implore you to look at me, and make me better. Help me to look past the wrong that others are committing in Your name and help me to be a better Christian. In the end, it's not gonna be about what kind of car you have, or who you know, or what denomination you are, but is your name written in the Book of Life. Lord, I pray that you just have a little mercy...

Signed,

Weary Christian...

...people can only do to you what you allow them To

People are always blaming others for things that they themselves are responsible for. The person doing all the blaming may not see it that way and may feel like they are the one that's always being wronged. Lets step back and analyse this. There is the person who was hurt, and the person that allegedly did the hurting and seemingly doesn't care. The person who was hurt is usually the one who talks about whatever the situation was that caused them pain and paints the other person in a negative light. Now true enough, the alleged offending person may have actually done something worthy of being talked about, but the thing that needs to be dealt with is how did it get to that point. In any situation, a person should never be able to get the best of you. You should always be the person who is able to walk away with your head held high.

There is one thing that I know with absolute certainty. People will definitely try you. They will make you mad enough to fight sometimes. The thing that you have to understand is that people can only do to you what you allow them to. To put that in perspective, if you are fighting mad at someone, its because you gave them the power to do so. People can only go as far as you let them. If you shut them down early, they don't have a chance to get to the point of feeling like they have the upper hand over you. The thing that is forgotten in these situations is that while you are mad at the person for whatever situation that occurred and are telling the earth how angry you are, that person is living their life. They are not thinking about you in the least. Next time you get angry and you wanna simmer in your disapproval of that person, remember that last statement. Honestly, no one really cares about the situation but you. Be adult, and move on. Learn to stop putting yourself in situations that could give someone the feeling of superiority over you in the first place. Remember that people will let you down. If you want to vent, talk to GOD...

...so you find yourself walking down a long path of hurt and deep Regret...

So you are walking down that long cold path of hurt and deep regret. What did you do to get there? Where did you go wrong? What could you have done differently given the circumstances? These are questions that are silently asked when you feel hurt or wronged in some way. Well quite frankly, it went wrong when you ignored conventional wisdom and did things that defied common sense. You didn't listen to that gut feeling that you had when you where making bad decisions.

The question you need to ask yourself is not how did you get to this place or what went wrong, but did you learn from your mistakes? If the answer is yes, that's wonderful. Life should be well for you and you are growing as an individual. If the answer is no, you will find yourself repeating the same mistakes over and over again until you do. It's not a pleasant experience and you may not think that you are repeating the same things. However, if you step back and look at past situations and are completely honest with yourself, you will see that you have. It's completely fine to make mistakes in life, but its not okay if you don't learn and grow from them.

The lesson here is that you should always learn something from your mistakes. For instance if you keep finding yourself in painful situations with people, there is obviously something that you are not learning. Honestly, if you are constantly being hurt by people, it's because you allowed it to happen. Face the facts. People can only do to you what you allow them to...

...people can really disappoint You

People can really disappoint you. Sometimes you find yourself in situations where you really want to just hurt someone because they let you down. The thing to learn is that you have to stop putting yourself in situations that allow people to catastrophically disappoint you. It's very easy to find your feelings mangled on the side of the road because someone did or said something stupid that drove you to the point of wanting to cause them physical harm. However, its even easier to control the elements that contribute to making you feel this way in the first place.

For instance, deep down you already know that keeping the company of certain people isn't a good thing, whether you admit to it or not. Instead of ridding yourself of the problem by releasing these cancerous people from your life, you try your hardest to rationalize keeping them in your life. If certain people are a counterproductive force in your life that keeps you from being happy, moving forward, or have become some sort of hindrance in any way, they simply need to be removed. These people are in your life for no apparent reason other than to hold you back in some way, inconvenience you, cause you pain, or embarrassment like a pimple that suddenly rises up on your head right before picture day. The thing we do as rationally irrational people is try to keep people around that don't need to be in our lives. It is not a good thing to do, and more than likely something bad will happen if you keep them around. You will find that for the sake of making yourself a better person, it's best to let unproductive, negative, hindering people leave your life. If you don't, you might find yourself walking down a long path of hurt and deep regret...

...don't hang with Stupid

Don't hang with stupid. Stupid makes you look bad. You already know that Stupid is admittedly just that, and so does everyone else. So why do you keep subjecting yourself to the stupidity of Mr or Ms. Stupid? Is it because you want to fit in? Are you doing it to gain something in the end? Why are you actually hanging with Stupid?

People hang with Stupid all the time for various reasons but one of the most common explanations is personal gain. You never gain anything from using someone. Usually the dumber of the pair will drag you down to his or her level. Even though this is so true, people choose to hang with Stupid all the time thinking they are gaining something, when they are actually losing. Like I said before, Stupid is admittedly stupid and everyone knows that, including you. The thing that makes hanging with Stupid so bad is the fact that you continue to do so despite knowing that this isn't a smart decision, and that Stupid thinks you are dumb for doing so. How do you fix this? Stop hanging with Stupid. If you keep hanging with them, you will find out real quick that people will disapoint you...

...know your worth, and never accept less than that out of Life

Sometimes in life, you have to do things that you don't really want to do, such as take a job that you dislike. It could be something more in depth than that. Sometimes when you sit down and analyze a situation, you realize that some things are just beneath you. It's not that your better than someone else, it's just that you know your self worth. When you know your worth, then you will strive for bigger and better things.

Never forget where you came from and people that may have helped you along the way. Know your self worth. Too many times we compromise out happiness for temporary gains. In the end, it only leaves you angry, and you have wasted your time with whatever endeavor you have embarked upon. Know what your worth and never accept less from life. If you truly know your self worth, you will never be caught hanging with Stupid...

its how you deal with lifes little love taps that makes you a stronger Person

It's how you deal with life's little love taps that can ultimately make or break a person. Life has a funny way of vetting you quickly. Life can sometimes be great, and sometimes life can be pretty cruel. In whatever situation you are experiencing in your life, its how you deal with it that can make or break you. Some experiences are meant for you to grow as a person, and some experiences happen because you did something stupid. When you sit back and look at a situation you where in once it is over, you should be able to reflect and see that you have gained valuable knowledge and experience from what you've gone through.

Never should you be about to look back at a troubling experience and not be able to see the good that came from it. If that is the case, you did not learn anything from the sitation, and you will more than likely repeat your mistakes. It's not meant for you to continually fall into the same patterns in life. Entering into repetitive inane cycles will just make your life miserable and you will become stagnant. If your going through a situation, you should be a stronger, more knowledgeable person when you come out of it. Know your worth, and never accept less that that out of life...

...remain positive, because hope is all that you have Left

Remain positive, even in bad situations, because the hope that things will get better may be all that you have to hold you over. Things will get tough from time to time and things may not always go according to plan. When the ship seemingly starts sinking, its up to you to grab a bucket and start pailing water back overboard. You can't let your ship sink, or in other words, you can't stop bailing water because you have no life preservers.

In life, you have to bail water out of that ship like you have no life preservers. You have to act like there is no back up plan, even if there is one. You are the only person that you can depend on and if you give up on yourself, who is going to be there for you. No one is going to just come swoop down out of the sky and solve all of your problems. Even when things get better in your life there is always something that will come along and pose some sort of problem. Most of the time though, it isnt the problem or situation that makes you a better person, its how you deal with lifes love taps that makes you a stronger person...