Hoping

Hello, everyone! As Yuki said, we've been very busy recently and haven't had time to post on our blog. Now on my last post, I said I would get into the flip side of what I was talking about. I'm going to say that right now I'm not going to talk about that. I've had something else on my mind that I'd like to share.

Lately I've been thinking about some analogies that relate to life. We all have our analogies for life, but I've been thinking about one particular one. It goes like this: Life is like weightlifting, you do repetitions in exercises, and toward the end, you really want to set down that weight.

This has been on my mind a lot lately (after all, I am doing weightlifting in school). You push or pull, trying to crank out enough reps to build muscle. Toward the end, you want to give up and set the weight down. But you keep pushing or pulling, knowing that soon you'll be able to set the weight down. Three more...if I could just do three more, I'll be happy. This is what you think. And once you get those three, you are satisfied. And what's the end result? You end up with muscle. Now I say life is so much like weightlifting. We live life, and things just stab us right through the heart. We feel like we're going to break into a thousand pieces. We have this weight that we're pushing, and we've done so many repetitions that we just want to set it down and give up.

I have this class that has been really tough on me lately. I don't hate the class, in fact, I think it's awesome. But I've studied so hard for so long. I read the chapters of the textbook. And yet when it comes to the quizzes, I just can't win. Every time I get back a score. I want to set that weight down. It wears me out, drains me of energy, makes me want to quit.

But I don't quit. Why? Well it's not because I have to keep going, no... Nothing is forcing to keep on moving. Instead, I know that in just a few more pushes, I can be happy. Something good will come out of this if I keep on trying. It's not simply the current event that you should be looking at. It's the outcome that will be generated from it. My hopes are high. Every day, I have hope.

Life is hard. I know it's not getting easier. But I'm believing in one thing: Hope. My Hope is God. God is like my partner in weightlifting. When I struggle to lift a bar back up, He's always there, guiding the bar back up. He says to me, "Hang on, I'm coming for you." Life is the largest weight I know. It's heavy, and it keeps getting more weight put onto it. It's hard to push. I hold on, knowing that the end result will bring about something good. Every obstacle that is tossed at me will be a weight added to the load, but if I aim for those last repetitions, I can keep going. Why? Because I'll grow from the experience.

Hope is important to life. Hope is what drives us to the finish line. This is really hard, but maybe next time it'll be better. Hope is something that shouldn't be forgotten. Without hope, we have little motivation to keep going. We'll set that weight down and never build muscle. I may feel like crying right now because of all the pain of my day, but tomorrow may be a better day. We just need to remember this little detail called hope which guides us through our day. All my hopes will lead to a bigger Hope. Are you remembering to hope? God has given promises to us. God doesn't break his promises, but we still hope that one day He'll fulfill them. We hope that one day He'll come for us.

Life is like weightlifting. At the end, we'll find out hope satisfied. How do I know it will be satisfied? God doesn't break His promises, and He provides the ULTIMATE hope.

Mirrors

Raine said that one day one of us could discuss how too much happiness can lead to emptiness. This is not that day as I am uncertain as to where she was leading. So I am turning this topic to another relevant point.

Raine and I have been very busy over the past year. We've gone through a lot of trials in which we've grown stronger, but we both struggle a lot with insecurities.

Today, I want to talk about mirrors. They show us our reflection of whom we are. They highlight our beauty and our flaws. Or at least, that's what we believe. It is our perception that points our our beauty or flaws. The mirrors shows us exactly as who we are. We are human. As a human, we have our own perceptions of how we should look and criticize every flaw that we see.

I, for one, am guilty of this daily. I point out that I'm heavier than I want to be, my blemishes, my dry lips, the dark circles under my eyes, the wrinkles every time I smile. I could go on, but I think I've made my point. Every flaw gnaws at me and stifles me.

I pull out concealer, lip gloss, and try to suck in my stomach. The mirror defines who I am. I do not define who I am. Which is where I run into my problem. So often, I let an inanimate object tell me that I am ugly. I let it convince me that I am unworthy, unintelligent, and never going to get out of this pit.

The mirror should not define me. I was created by a God who loves me. I was created in His imagine. I am perfect in His eyes. I am the one He sent His son to die for. I am the greatest treasure in all of the earth. So why can't I see past all of my flaws and accept that I am the fairest of all?

Because I let mirrors define me. I don't let what God thinks of me define who I am. I don't let the fact that others love me or call me beautiful define the person I am. No, I let an inanimate object mock me. I can't believe someone real, but I can believe an object. When I put it in that perspective, I feel foolish. I let something so trivial shape the person I am.

But we all do it. We define ourselves by the label we wear, the music we listen to, the games we play, the coffee we drink, the cars we drive, or even the jobs we have. They are all like mirrors. They are what define us most of the time. However, we are children of a God who has everything we could want. We fill ourselves with temporary happiness in our apperances and possessions.

Those things are exactly that: temporary. However, being defined by God and who we are in God are forever. We are never imperfect in His eyes. Do you let yourself be defined by objects instead of Christ? Do you remind others how beautiful they are?