CHALLENGES AREN'T SENT TO HURT US

 

 

 

-------
This is for a friend. Why am I putting it down here? Because she wants to see it here. Saying that her challenges are everybody's challenge.... that basically we are all the same. That if she was learning from life, we should be learning it, too.

So.... this is for you, dear friend.
.
DON'T CRY, IT'S JUST HARD

You have your share of life's worries, concerns, adversities, problems. But I'd rather call them challenges. Because that's what it is. 

Those things when they come are the least bit pretty (to put it mildly)... quite inconvenient.... messy sometimes.... confusing.... aggravating.... and takes the mind and heart off the track in crazy unforgiving ways. It often takes you up a wall ... a frustrating blank hard stubborn wall. And as much as you would desire it, there is no magic word that would make that wall come crumbling down for you. There is no magic word or potion that would make your worries go away.

But I do know this.

Life is a leveler of people. It gives everyone problems big and small, hard and not always easy. It covers about everything there is in life or about life and living. The rich and the poor both struggle with it in a vast assortment of ways. Visible and invisible.
It affects people in diverse ways and people react to it in also a diversity of means and manner. Some succeed and then some don't. 

Life through the years have shown me how people live with it in their own respective turfs. I have my own share to learn from, too.

I guess that is the key ----- learn.

Mom would always remind me that ..... 'there is no life without its share of challenges'. She calls them challenges, too, not problems.

But we have to be strong, she says. Stand our ground. Rev up our store of faith. Challenges come in different sizes.... color.... mode.... degree or intensity (akin to the typhoons Ondoy and Yolanda which buffeted our country way back.. or ..that of Hurricane 5 which hit Florida recently). Through it all we are asked to be courageous, defiant, flexible, undefeated, persistent in prayer, and hopeful. Yes, it can hurt us but it can't hurt our spirit. We will be and should be ready to bounce back up again!

Challenges aren't sent us to hurt us (although we often perceive it to be). Sometimes it does look like it did. But we should open our eyes... mind... heart to see the bigger intent for it. Because there certainly is a reason for everything that happens to us or to this crazy planet. 

In human terms, what I understand is that we are being nudged even though painfully (sometimes) that there are some things that we should be learning. If we pay close attention, we will get to see that lesson, understand it and learn.

Mom would also remind me.... 'do not react but rather respond to your challenge'. Explaining further that 'reacting' involves feelings... while 'responding' requires some thinking. Reacting is often impulsive. Responding is more thought out.

Oh yeah, but not to react is more often hard. Because it's the first impulse of a heart that is hurt or hurting. Tears follow it in torrents filling up buckets and buckets more while the pain lasts.

I know... but ....don't cry, it's just hard. Look your challenge straight in the eye and say..... 'You won't get me. I will lick you yet!!'

And you will!

Besides..... Somebody up there will enable you. That's for sure!