Looking Foward!

      Okay, so I decided since last time I did "looking back" I might want to mention "looking forward". After all looking forward sometimes can be painful and difficult, especially when in the middle of messes that life seems to throw at us. When we are in those messy trials of our lives we wonder if we will ever make it through them! What does the future hold? And if you stop and think about it we've all faced them at one time or another in our lives. As I write this I can think of several that I have been involved with either personally or watched family members or dear friends struggle with. May I just share a few with you: How about the child who really wants to be a great student, but struggles to focus on his work and finds himself failing classes? Or the kid who wants to be a great soccer player, but just never seems to get the breaks even though he is quite good at the game? What about the college student who graduates with a degree that should allow for a successful job, but because of the economy there are no job openings in that area? What of the person whose whole desire in life has been to get married and have a family, but has never been blessed with that opportunity? What of the person who has been married and years down the road divorce looms in their life? Or the person whose child struggles with severe health issues? Or the person who wants to move forward in life, but just never seems to get the breaks? And I could go on and on because in reality there are millions of problems and struggles we have to face in life. So does that mean we have to look forward glumly and snarl our way through the rest of our life? We could, but does that help anyone including ourself? I read a thought the other day that said something like "We all have problems that will test us to the core, but it is up to us if we allow them to destroy us or to build us!" So very true. NO, it is not easy, but going through life angry, frustrated, taking it out on ourselves as well as those around us only makes it worse and us more miserable! Recognizing that it is not easy is the easy part of any problem. Looking within ourselves and focusing on not letting it beat us is what is hard. So we need to focus on the things we can change in ourselves in order for our future to be better and to feel better about ourselves even if the problem never quite goes away! Let's beat the problem by letting it help build us into better stronger people! People who can look forward to the future with hope and faith because we are determined to use that problem as a stepping stone to move us upward and onward in our journey of life!