Do You Enjoy Your Life? Why, or Why Not?

[Edwin]

I never thought about this idea until I was doing student teaching in a third grade classroom! I always lived my life, and I enjoyed it, but I never thought about having a choice whether to enjoy your life or not enjoy your life. Anyway I was overwhelmed with more to do that I knew how to do. I didn't understand everything I was trying to do. The people that I was answerable to were not easy to get along with, and at times they hard on me, and even mean to me. There was another third grade teacher, who was a very good teacher, who I think observed that I was having a hard time, and appeared to be miserable! Well, she sent me a card, and on it she wrote, "David, enjoy your life, because if you don't, then who will? That is a great question; if you don't enjoy your life, then who will?

What will it take for you to enjoy your life? Do you need to change some things so that your life will be more enjoyable? This is something to think about, huh? I think a lot of it has to do with attitude. We can tell ourselves that we are happy or unhappy. Of course living for Jesus and to honor God should allow us to be happy every day of our lives. Just the knowledge that we have the forgiveness forgiveness of sins from God, and eternal life should make us very happy! The devil can't rob us of our happiness unless we allow him to do that. We must not allow the devil to do that!

[red]

i enjoy my life. i enjoy the struggles and crisis lol. i enjoy life despite it because God is good to me and my family. there are hurdles but its temporary because God is always there to help out. i enjoy life too knowing my siblings and parents and loved ones and friends are blessed. i enjoy life because of my girls and my husband. mostly i enjoy life if i have some good food to eat ha ha

[Edwin]

You are right Red about having a lot to enjoy in our lives. We have a lot to be thankful for, and even if our lives are hard. Our life is a gift from God. Yes, there are hard places, hurdles to jump over, but God is there with us to help us! My mother when she was alive, said that she lived for God and for her family, and she loved her friends also. Red, you and I both, and I suspect a lot of other people on here enjoy our food! I won't talk about the chocolate in front of you though!!!! That wasn't nice, was it?

[fenmoor]

LIfe...

Life is a chore right now.

I have not enjoyed my "life" in years. I have moments of joy and people that bring joy in my life, but my life has frankly sucked and I would wish it on no one.

I am not certain when it will turn around either. I think that is the worst part of it all. No light at the end of the tunnel.

When my life first began to spiral downward I used to bolster myself by saying... it has got to get better... it has got to get better. You know what? it does NOT have to get better as my increasingly terrible life has shown me.

The hardest part of all of this, the thing that seems most unfair is that I am in this mess because I was trying to "Serve" others. I tried to do the right thing in life and it has blown up on me. This has caused me to become somewhat bitter and growing far from God.

I no longer think that it has got to get better, I simply hope that it will end someday soon so I can go home. I am tired of this fight.

BIll

[Edwin]

I am very sorry fenmoor, Bill, for whatever it was that happened to you! Not everything does turn out well for us, and sometimes we have to make the best out of bad situtions. I am glad that you do have moments of joy and that people at times do bring joy into your life. I pray that God will turn this around for you!

[Smiley]

Happiness can come when you let it. I know it sounds overly simplistic to say this but you are as happy or as unhappy as you percieve yourself to be. If you can be content,you can be happy.Without going into detail,I can say that I have weathered some pretty unhappy episodes in life. That is my past,I chose to let go of my past in order to be free to grasp my future.These are not empty words Bill,and I hope that you can take something from this message.

[Edwin]

Yes, Smiley, I think many of us have had not so nice things happen to us in the past. Carol is telling me all the time to let go of the past, forget the hurts, give them to Jesus, and then you will be free and happy. I know it is not easy to do, and Carol told me that she struggles with that too, but she has learned to overcome and not think about unpleasant things that happened to her when she was growing up. Her family was badly disrupted, and people were not always nice to her and her brother, but they survived. I tend to think of past hurts more than I should, and I am trying to be different, and give them all to Jesus, and then not carry them anymore!

[Smiley]

Yes it is best to just let it go.Being too fixated on the past can make you crazy.Time rolls on and so should we.The future should be more important than the past.

[Smiley]

There is a guy here in my hometown that had a pretty bright future.He was a very talented goldsmith and had built up a decent clientele. He owned the commercial building his shop was in and a few income properties nearby. He had a terrible tenant (you know what they can be like). He somehow mishandled the eviction and the tenant sued and won a large judgement.Buddy became obsessed and appealed,lost the appeal and flipped out.He sun out pretty bad after that and neglected everything else but trying to prove that he was right.Fast forward 12 or 14 years he now owns nothing,is on welfare and Pulls a 2 wheeled cart full of 'legal documents' around. He stops people on the street and moans and groans about how poorly life has treated him. Most of his misery started with one injustice that he could easily have absorbed had he chosen to.What a sad waste of a life just because he got stuck being more concerned with the past than with the future.

[Edwin]

When I was a young guy I was not materialistic in the least. My parents had a cattle ranch and wheat farming operation, and I had everything I needed, tools or whatever you could imagine, that was theirs, but I never even had to ask to use anything. When I went away to Bible College everything I owned could fit in a suit case. Of course the five years I went there I accumulated, and when I left the car was full! Now I have 2 40 plus foot reefer trailers full of our stuff, plus our 40 foot double wide full as well! Things are more important to me now than they used to be. I like things, but you know there are two thoughts that tell me that I shouldn't get possessive. One I am already two years older than my Dad was when he died, and we can't take any of this stuff with us. Leave it for the kids to deal with!!!! That really makes me happy to think of it that way! Another thing is that one of these days God is going to burn all of this stuff up. It doesn't matter whether it is wood, concrete, rocks, metal, it is all going to go. Then the only thing that will count is what we have done with Jesus, and if we have done the Will of God. That will be the only value then, and that day is not far off.