EST. 2014
I love you. In my opinion, these words are just as hard to hear as to say. The minute you hear these words all of sudden there are these responsibilities given to you, as unwanted as they may be sometimes. You have to take this person's feelings into consideration, because now you don't have plausible deniability. And these feelings and fears come in hand with any relationship/some relationships. All of sudden you have to start replaying your friendship/relationship in your mind and decide if you feel the same way - if you haven't already. I love you. The minute you say this sentence you've forfeited your ability to deny it any more. You put yourself out there, and you become vulnerable. Either way, you start to think about what it really means to love someone. Does it mean you'll never hurt them again? Does it mean you'll stand by them no matter what? Does it mean they even need to know? Saying 143 or ily isn't the same as saying, "I. Love. You." There are circumstances where 143 IS what you need to say or write or hashtag. But it isn't the same thing, and we shouldn't pretend it is. I shouldn't pretend it is. Life's too short to not say, "I love you." Sure. But this sentence is way too precious to be JUST a hashtag, JUST a greeting card, JUST an obligation. “We are not held back by the love we didn't receive in the past, but by the love we're not extending in the present.” - Marianne Williamson
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When I'm super worried and stressed about everything in my life, it's usually because of ONE thing. One aspect of my life that has me seeing through a negative lens. I wholeheartedly believe in giving it all up to God, but if we don't know what exactly we're giving up, entering back into our vicious cycles seems more likely - at least it is for me. I propose that on days when the simplest task seems near impossible, when everyone else seems to be messing up our day, and when calm is a mere memory, we find that ONE thing. I'm not saying that there won't be days when we will have no idea what's wrong, because there will be. There will be days when the annoyance in our hearts has nothing to do with us. There will be days when God has put a random stranger's struggles on our hearts. There will be days that just feel like bad days.* Having said that, I do think we owe it to ourselves (and the people we're hurting, because of our bad day) to try and figure out [to some degree] what is going on. Whether it's one of the aforementioned things or ONE thing. That one thing could be a test or an interview you didn't realise you were thinking about. It could be the loss of something (a job etc.) or someone dear to you. When we find this one thing we no longer have to pray these vague blanket prayers, but we can focus on this one thing. When we find this one thing we are able to be more intentional about the way we react to everything and everyone around us. When we find this one thing we can nip our stress and our fears in the bud. *My opinion is that no matter what the reason is, you pray.
It can be easier to follow other people’s paths and then switch out a couple details here and there, but sometimes we are called to step out and do things our own way. I am totally for following in a role model’s footsteps; but, I feel like too often we use this idea as an excuse to stop trying to pave our own way.
If we do this, it means walking blindly and it guarantees that there will be pot-holes along the way, but “obstacles are only obstacles until you move them out of the way.” – John Greer (John Nolan – Person of Interest) Sure in this particular case Greer was talking about shooting anyone who gets in the way, but I think the statement is still valid. As I mentioned in my post “Foundations…” our past experiences can end up being stepping stones for the opportunities that lie ahead. Our “failings” and our successes can end up being somebody else’s path to follow. I realise that this post sounds a lot like my others (especially “Frozen Lakes…”), but this lesson has been something that’s been popping up all over my life. And maybe it has in others’ as well, and maybe someone out there needs to hear it as many times as I do. |