Building off successes over struggle

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.

Life has gotten so competitive. People want to have the best car, clothes, house, vacation, etc. We can so easily become so consumed in what everyone else is doing and feel compelled to do it too. As a society, we so easily build off others struggles in ways we sometimes don’t even recognize. But what if we flipped that? What if we decided to build off others successes and encourage when they struggle instead of gossip. What if you talked to your friend about the girl you don’t get along with, but instead of talking about her mess ups in order to make yourself feel better, what if you talked about the good things she’s done? Wouldn’t that bring a different vibe to the way we live? I’m not claiming that this is going to be an easy and quick fix. It is so tempting to gossip and thrive off others mistakes and struggles. But I feel that if we simply thrived off others successes, the world would be a much different place.

It’s no secret that there are plenty of mean people in the world. And I’m not claiming that you have to like and get along with everyone. But you make the choice to build off their struggle. Friends, it is so tempting to gossip. It’s something I’ve done many times and something I am never proud of doing. It just brings negativity all around and does no good at all. It’s hard to believe but there are so many good things in this world, that can often be overlooked by the overpowering bad. Miracles happen every day. And I think that if we focus on that a little more, we might start to see a change in the way we live.
It’s ok to have a conversation about someone and talk about your feelings. But it’s not ok to build off that in an attempt to feel better about yourself. Because the truth is that is forever so unsatisfying. While it might be a temporary fix, your heart will always yearn for something more real. Y’all Jesus wants you to come to him with your feelings of struggle. With your self doubt and broken spirit. He is truly the only person who can make you whole. Our world constantly searches for ways to build off struggle and mistakes but we serve a God who instead takes that struggle and makes us whole with it. Through our struggles we learn and grow and ultimately, I feel end up a better person. We are simply not perfect people. We sin and have regrets. So why is it ok for you to do it, but then the minute someone else struggles you race to tell your friend.

So let’s try. Let’s try to build off success over struggle. Let’s celebrate people instead of putting them down. We can either fill the world with negativity or positivity and I sure would like to live in the positive world over the negative one.
So let’s admit that we all sin and make mistakes instead of thriving off the struggles of others. Let’s encourage and build each other up. I’ve found life to be so much more fun when I simply live it, mistakes and all. When people mess up, let’s encourage them and help them to hopefully not make that mistake again. But at the end of the day, struggle is a part of life and how we react to it defines who we are. So let’s thrive off success friends, it just seems a whole lot more fun.

All the love, Annie