| Tonight, I have realized that God has blessed me beyond anything that I could really ask for. I remember when I was probably about nine years old that I read a book that told me that if there was nothing to be upset about, then I should be smiling, because God has given us life and it is good. Ever since, that idea has always stuck with me. Though lately, within the past couple of months, I haven't always carried the same smile around that was always there ever since I can think back. There was even a time when I was younger that my dad would ask to see that "Brian smile." However recently, I have let my being soo tired or my stresses of the day/week or even other people get to me and take the joy from me that I'd once carried to everyone everywhere I went. During our bible study tonight, it finally clicked that being upset or not sharing in other's happiness is doing nothing for your own walk. As I thought more about it, I have decided that I will strive to always be positive towards others and appreciate what God has done for them instead of being jealous that it wasn't me receiving the blessing. So many times in our lives, we pin things on people. We like to pass the blame, we like to make ourselves look better through other's imperfections. In doing this, we create an insecurity and a faulty idea of who we are. No one is perfect and that includes me. That includes you. We must realize this as we interact with those around us. Pray for me as I pray for you that we can build each other up in the love that God has so graciously given to us. We all need it, whether we are too prideful to admit it or not. And if you're too prideful to admit it, pray for humility. Take care. It's been a while. "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these." (2 Timothy 3:1-5) |
