I am currently in the midst of a crazy busy season of life. One thing seems to be together and then all of the sudden I have 20 new things that need to be taken care of. I feel like I’m on a boat with a bunch of holes and when I finally get one hole patched up another opens. It’s nonstop action. Anyway, lately I’ve felt super anxious and stressed trying to keep it all together and in the midst of all of it, I feel like I’ve forgotten to step back and remember what truly matters.
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Fear is something I deal with a lot. I’ve talked about it before and probably will again after today. It’s frustrating dealing with something you want to get rid of so badly but no matter how many times you push, pull, or pray it’ll leave, stupid fear seems happily lodged into place. Lately I seem to have a mix of quick everyday fears and bigger more important ones. I worry about tests and plans and making a schedule. Little things that eventually fade away. And then bigger fears like where I’m going to go to college and what will I do for a job, where will I end up? Those are just some of my fears and I’d guess you probably have some of your own. Fear can very much have a big place in our life.
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In life, I find it is so easy to build off of other people’s struggles. It’s something I think we all do, potentially some of us more than others. But unfortunately, we live in a world where this is so encouraged and normal. I’ve been thinking about it, I mean it’s like every time you turn on the news or check twitter or Facebook someone’s talking negatively about peoples mistakes and struggles and mostly these are people they’ve never even met. I think sometimes people feel better talking about and criticizing other people’s struggles because it makes theirs seem more valid. We read articles about celebrity drama in hopes of feeling better about our own lives or feeling entertained for a couple minutes at the least. We talk bad about people to our best friend in an unfulfilling attempt to feel superior. We build off the struggles of others. But what we should be doing is building off the successes of others.
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Hi Friends! This past week I worked at VBS at my church. I had a great time learning all the fun songs and hanging out with some pretty cool third graders. One kid in particular was able to remind me a little bit about what trusting Jesus looks like because I seemed to have forgotten for a second. So one of our activities was to cut a single piece of paper so that we could both fit through it. At first, I was thinking oh goodness this is going to be a mess. I couldn’t see how this was going to work. But the little boy was excited and wanted to start cutting. He was ready to give it his best shot. I told him to wait and let’s think about it for a second because I wanted to get it right. He was still eager to cut so I eventually decided to just let him go for it. He started cutting and I watched as he cut in a way that opened the paper so that we could both fit through it. I never thought of cutting it like that. We moved on to the next activity and that was that. Though today during church I kept thinking about this moment. And eventually I realized that God might have been trying to teach me something through that tiny little moment.
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Social media is a blessing and a curse. With its good comes it bad. While it provides us with things like keeping up with friends, finding places to travel, getting inspiration, etc. I find that most of these things are just excuses for us to justify it. I mean not all social media is negative. Sometimes it really can be used for good, like discovering hidden talents and sharing the good and important things in our lives. But other times it is a place where we can feel very negative about ourselves, very easily. It is most always a highlight reel. We share the moments of bliss. Not the ones where we are hurting. Which isn’t a bad thing because privacy is good, but from the outside when we see these perfect pictures we instantly wonder what we’re doing wrong. Why does my stomach not look like that, I want her hair, her outfits are so much cuter than mine, and list goes on. It’s an instant comparison and so often unconscious effort. It’s a picture after picture highlight reel comparison that drains the confidence from us- sometimes without us even noticing.
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