What are you dealing with? There are millions of people and millions of problems. These days it seems, everybody’s dealing with something.
Real Pain, Real Life
Let me just give you a few examples of real pain and real life. Here’s what I’ve encountered just this year with people I know in my circle of influence:
- a parent diagnosed with dementia
- a woman who buried her two adult children and her husband
- two small children whose parents were killed in a crash
- someone dealing with depression and thoughts of suicide
- a parent whose child has been sexually abused
- young mothers dealing with little children
- someone with an upcoming surgery
- a woman with a spouse who wants to leave after 30 years
- a woman who lost custody of her two children
- 6 months to live with a cancer diagnosis
- someone with feelings of anxiety about the future
- death of a suffering friend
These are some pretty big problems and they are just a few. Maybe we can relate to some of them. How do we deal with or handle these? They seem overwhelming. If you stop and think about it, everybody is dealing with something. They may not be this big, but we all know pain and sorrow when it comes. How can we help each other? How can we help ourselves? Because if we are honest, we are all dealing with something. None of us is immune to problems.
Dealing With It
How do you deal with life? Some people take a pill or two. Some drink alcohol, or smoke pot to escape while others pretend their problems don’t exist. Food can help soothe anything, right? Life is hard and it takes guts to get through it all and prayer.
If you’ve been following along over the last two years you know that I think that’s the answer to everything, don’t I? Just pray. Well, I think if we were all praying for each other, that might be a start. Maybe instead of seeking other ways to kill our pain, we should all seek The Healer. Jesus gave us the perfect prayer, the Our Father, in the book of Matthew, chapter 6, verse 9. He tells us exactly how to pray. If you read the whole chapter, before and after, you’ll see it isn’t just about prayer but also how to fast, and give alms. Giving alms is like putting money in the collection at church. It’s a three part system. It’s about putting your faith into action. Believing that God will answer your prayers.
Action Steps
Prayer. Fasting. Almsgiving. Try it. Pray for yourselves. Pray for your friends. It’s pretty simple. It works. Put it in your calendar. Schedule it in your day. Every day. Thanks for following along. I appreciate you and I will be praying for you all. God bless.–Barb
