Disappointment

This is not a fun word to be. No one wants to be a disappointment. I recently had the joy of disappointing someone. Not fun. Tears were shed. One of my biggest fears is to be a disappointment to people. I hate letting people down, and I usually strive to go the extra mile. Sometimes though, I fail spectacularly at this. Sometimes I get so tired and lazy that the second mile just doesn't seem worth it and the first one doesn't really matter all that much anyway... This is a bad place to be. So I let someone down because I just didn't care at that point. Of course, now I care a lot and wish I could go back and kick myself and say, "CARE!" but I cannot. So now's my time to learn from what I just did. I did a little poking around on google and I found this. They Did Not Give Up. Check it out. It's a bunch of stories of famous people who had to go through a lot of disappointments and seeming failures before they got to where they were going. So I'll let you learn from them. But never fear failure, because if you do it right, it only gets you closer to the prize. As Confucius said, "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Honored

Life is hard. Life is fun. Life is short. Life is here. Life is now. Life is a gift. All these things are true, and I just wanted to stop and take a moment to really thank God for the gift of life that He gave each and every one of us. Many times we thank God for some of the things in life, but never really for life itself, when really that is one of the biggest gifts he gave us. Often we get down and don't stop and think what a blessing it is to be allowed to live a hard life. I know it doesn't seem like an honor to be granted hardships in  your life, but it really is! For God to look at me and say, "If she leans on me during this hardship, I will help her." is quite the honor. For God to believe that I can handle these things in my life is definitely saying something. So don't get mad at God when he throws something difficult your way, thank Him for giving you your life and consider it an honor to suffer for Christ.

James 1:2-4  Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.