Most of us have a struggle in
negotiating the furrows and ridges of life. Anxiousness and depressive feelings
are common to us all, if only for moments. Surviving the ordinary struggles of
life is truly our biggest test—winning the financial battles, retaining our
composure with our family and children, getting some meaning out of our work,
etc.
At times these struggles get on
top of us, and we can begin to feel isolated and beyond help. This is until we
arrive at hope for recovery; where we can work on enjoying life again.
Having Realistic Expectations
If we were to sit outside of our
bodies for a moment—outside of our lives—we would have the vantage point of an
objective third party.
How would we view our lives, including
the challenges we face and must surmount?
Chances are we a harder on
ourselves than we ought to be. Sometimes the pressure comes from within.
Sometimes we set ourselves up with unrealistic expectations. And many times our
unrealistic hopes climb over our more established abilities and capacities.
God always makes life achievable,
but we must keep it simple.
When we begin to view our lives
fairly, noting the inbuilt complexities, many of which involve us emotionally,
we can begin to debunk the false hopes. We become more realistic. Realism
becomes more important than optimism or pessimism.
We need to get fair with ourselves
regarding what we expect.
Celebrating the Simple Things
God is found in the simple things.
And although we’ve been placed in complex lives, within a multifaceted world,
our key to establishing peace enough to survive the ordinary difficulties of
life is simplicity.
When we can differentiate our
needs from our wants, being quite wise and discerning, we begin to do the
things we need to do first, such that our lives are ordered. It brings a lot of
joy to most of us to be in control. Especially when we are to be relied upon as
adults, being in control of the necessary things of life really does help.
But then there are things we have
no control over. These would be the complicated things; the things we don’t
understand; the things God has in control. These we do our best to simply accept.
***
The simpler we can keep our lives
the better. The more realistic our expectations are the better. Keeping life
simple and being realistic are two great ways of surviving the ordinary
struggles of life.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
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