As humans, we have been given such wonderful and amazing gifts from our Creator, and yet we find ways to misuse them all. We are given brains to think, we end up using them to over-analyze situations and make things up to become something they aren't. We are given hearts, and we go after desires that aren't healthy for us, ones we can never have. We are given eyes that we let cry over nights of studying only to end up with a grade on an exam we never wanted. We are given souls, and we haunt them with our regrets, our wishes, all these things that we want instead of looking at our lives realistically. We spend years and years dreaming of our lives in the years ahead because we make the present seem unbearable.
Why is it so hard to live in the present and see it as something more?
When I was in elementary school, we had firefighters come to our school once every year to teach us what to do if a fire started in our homes. They took us to a trailer that they brought with them every year which was a like a little make shift apartment. They divided us into small groups, and took each group in one at a time with a firefighter. Once inside, we'd close the door and the room would fill with fake smoke. The firefighter would then teach us that when there's too much smoke, we need to get down onto our hands and knees and crawl to the door since the smoke would mainly concentrate above. Then we'd crawl to the door and feel it with the back of our hand since it was more sensitive than the palm. If the door felt cool, then we'd open it and we were free to escape. The firefighter then showed us that if we ever catch on fire (yes, that made us very worried of it ever happening), we should immediately stop, drop, and roll until the fire is put out.
"It's scary, but you have to make sure not to panic, and just do what?" He'd ask.
"Stop, drop, and roll," we'd all reply, proud that we knew what to do in a stressful situation.
As I've gotten older, I've noticed exactly how the lessons I learned as a child are relevant to me now. This is one example. I am a mega-stresser, Queen of Anxiety, Duchess of the Land of Over-analyzing. I like to plan ahead (years in advance) and know my plan. I could have told you when I was four what I was going to be studying in college. I planned my four year college plan my freshman year in college. I planned for a 4.0. And when any of my plans deviate, the Queen and the Duchess take over and I go into panic mode. Let me tell you from now, that my plan has deviated. My college plan, my four year plan, my major, many goals that I've set, how many books I'd have done by now, the exam grades I planned to get...I can go on.
I am trying to teach myself that even if I have a plan, it's only MY plan, and I am no higher power. There is a higher power up there who has a better plan for me, the BEST plan for me, the best plan for every single one of us. Sometimes I have a hard time realizing that and accepting it (like when I'm studying for an exam and praying hard for the grade I want), and other times when my plan deviates and I have a hard time coping with it, I believe it and feel it in every cell in my body. I've grown to appreciate and love the fact that if something doesn't work out the way I want it, it's not my fault; it's a will I cannot control.
That doesn't mean stop working hard or stop planning. It just means that when things the present sets on fire, and all we want to do is run away and think of the future, maybe we should just stop, drop, and roll with it. Deal with it now because it will get better later.
Why is it so hard to live in the present and see it as something more?
When I was in elementary school, we had firefighters come to our school once every year to teach us what to do if a fire started in our homes. They took us to a trailer that they brought with them every year which was a like a little make shift apartment. They divided us into small groups, and took each group in one at a time with a firefighter. Once inside, we'd close the door and the room would fill with fake smoke. The firefighter would then teach us that when there's too much smoke, we need to get down onto our hands and knees and crawl to the door since the smoke would mainly concentrate above. Then we'd crawl to the door and feel it with the back of our hand since it was more sensitive than the palm. If the door felt cool, then we'd open it and we were free to escape. The firefighter then showed us that if we ever catch on fire (yes, that made us very worried of it ever happening), we should immediately stop, drop, and roll until the fire is put out.
"It's scary, but you have to make sure not to panic, and just do what?" He'd ask.
"Stop, drop, and roll," we'd all reply, proud that we knew what to do in a stressful situation.
As I've gotten older, I've noticed exactly how the lessons I learned as a child are relevant to me now. This is one example. I am a mega-stresser, Queen of Anxiety, Duchess of the Land of Over-analyzing. I like to plan ahead (years in advance) and know my plan. I could have told you when I was four what I was going to be studying in college. I planned my four year college plan my freshman year in college. I planned for a 4.0. And when any of my plans deviate, the Queen and the Duchess take over and I go into panic mode. Let me tell you from now, that my plan has deviated. My college plan, my four year plan, my major, many goals that I've set, how many books I'd have done by now, the exam grades I planned to get...I can go on.
I am trying to teach myself that even if I have a plan, it's only MY plan, and I am no higher power. There is a higher power up there who has a better plan for me, the BEST plan for me, the best plan for every single one of us. Sometimes I have a hard time realizing that and accepting it (like when I'm studying for an exam and praying hard for the grade I want), and other times when my plan deviates and I have a hard time coping with it, I believe it and feel it in every cell in my body. I've grown to appreciate and love the fact that if something doesn't work out the way I want it, it's not my fault; it's a will I cannot control.
That doesn't mean stop working hard or stop planning. It just means that when things the present sets on fire, and all we want to do is run away and think of the future, maybe we should just stop, drop, and roll with it. Deal with it now because it will get better later.
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