When your GPA is 4.0 you can take AP classes to achieve a 5.0 GPA. When you make the Dean's List you can work harder to graduate Summa Cum Laude, the next highest honor. When you're captain of your hockey team you strive to be All-Star of the league you play in. When the book you write and publish reaches the Top of the New York Time's, you can work on achieving the Nobel Peace Prize Award.
You can always do better and you can always reach higher then where you are now. You can always be richer, smarter, better looking, more athletic, and even a better Christian. You can always have better material things as well, you can have the latest most popular gadgets invented with your eye on the latest material possession you can get your hands on. You can always be warmer or colder. You can always be more up to date with current events.
You can be a lot of things in life, in fact, you can be whoever you want to be. You can be popular with the kids, popular with elderly, popular in your own age group. Popular in high school, popular in college, popular in the everyday work force. Popular in your church, or your club, or in your neighborhood.
You can be as happy as you want to be in the life you live. You can be exactly what others expect you to be. You can exceed others expectations of who you are and who you will become. You can be everything to everyone you meet and then some to those you've never met. You can meet their expectations, you can exceed their expectations, you can help them succeed beyond the expectations they have of themselves.
You can be everything to everyone. Except yourself.
When nothing about you is good enough for yourself, everything you are, everything about you that others see, holds no value in the life you feel you should be living. Your 5.0 GPA feels like a 2.0, graduating Summa Cum Laude seems like a disappointment, being All-Star of your league means you should be in a better league. Winning the Noble Peace Prize Award only makes you realize how much better you could of wrote that book.
The compliments and attention you get from others does not equal the disappointment and fear that lives inside of you in a darkness no one else can see. The good heart others tell you that you have beats faster then they would imagine trying to stop feelings for someone you fear hurting. The great mind others tell you that you have races out of control trying to find ways to be better. The fit healthy physic others see and compliment you on has more aches and pains then anyone would imagine from your obsessive work out routine to keep up with the feeling it will one day fail you.
When the package on the outside does not match the contents of the inside, life becomes a challenge in figuring out the changes you need to make so that what people see you as, is the you they can count on when they need you to be there for them. Figuring out how to fix yourself is exhausting. Just when you feel you have yourself figured out self-doubts start to invade your mind, making it race in a 100 different directions.
Will I ever find the answers I am looking for that will relax my mind enough to slow down and let me enjoy the talents I have? Will I ever find the answers I am looking for that will tell me everything is as it should be. All is right in my world and I am ready to share it with another? Will I ever be as confident in my future as my family and friends are? Will I ever hit a goal I have set for myself and be satisfied enough with it that I can stop and enjoy the success before I feel the need to succeed at a higher level. Will I ever meet and expectation in an endeavor that I can be please with and not have to exceed? Will I ever find an end to any of the beginnings in my life? Will I ever put to rest the fears of my past and awake the future I desire?
This quote by Buddha is taped to the the Misfit refrigerator. It fits our home well and is a daily reminder to all of us under one roof that today is what we should live for, making the memories of tomorrow and forgetting about the fears of our past. It is a quote that is a gentle reminder to all of us that if we dwell in our past we are not starting our day with new hopes of a better tomorrow. That the future begins at this moment, on this day, and each minute we move forward in a life free of fears of the past we are headed in the right direction. Mistakes will be made, lessons will be learned and life will go on.
I try to look at daily life as a celebration of all things accomplished in the goodness of life. To be the young Christian man I want to be in my journey to Heaven. To be the best me I can be and not disappoint those that believe in me. To lead my life with a solid mind and a loving heart. To make strangers my friends and see the best in others. To live by the laws of our government and the commandments of God.
Why is this not good enough for me? Why is good enough for everyone else not good enough for myself? What changes can I make in me to match what they see outside and who I am on the inside?\ Where can I find the answers to the questions that keep me a prisoner inside the depths of a soul darkened by the past that never goes away.
You can always do better and you can always reach higher then where you are now. You can always be richer, smarter, better looking, more athletic, and even a better Christian. You can always have better material things as well, you can have the latest most popular gadgets invented with your eye on the latest material possession you can get your hands on. You can always be warmer or colder. You can always be more up to date with current events.
You can be a lot of things in life, in fact, you can be whoever you want to be. You can be popular with the kids, popular with elderly, popular in your own age group. Popular in high school, popular in college, popular in the everyday work force. Popular in your church, or your club, or in your neighborhood.
You can be as happy as you want to be in the life you live. You can be exactly what others expect you to be. You can exceed others expectations of who you are and who you will become. You can be everything to everyone you meet and then some to those you've never met. You can meet their expectations, you can exceed their expectations, you can help them succeed beyond the expectations they have of themselves.
You can be everything to everyone. Except yourself.
When nothing about you is good enough for yourself, everything you are, everything about you that others see, holds no value in the life you feel you should be living. Your 5.0 GPA feels like a 2.0, graduating Summa Cum Laude seems like a disappointment, being All-Star of your league means you should be in a better league. Winning the Noble Peace Prize Award only makes you realize how much better you could of wrote that book.
The compliments and attention you get from others does not equal the disappointment and fear that lives inside of you in a darkness no one else can see. The good heart others tell you that you have beats faster then they would imagine trying to stop feelings for someone you fear hurting. The great mind others tell you that you have races out of control trying to find ways to be better. The fit healthy physic others see and compliment you on has more aches and pains then anyone would imagine from your obsessive work out routine to keep up with the feeling it will one day fail you.
When the package on the outside does not match the contents of the inside, life becomes a challenge in figuring out the changes you need to make so that what people see you as, is the you they can count on when they need you to be there for them. Figuring out how to fix yourself is exhausting. Just when you feel you have yourself figured out self-doubts start to invade your mind, making it race in a 100 different directions.
Will I ever find the answers I am looking for that will relax my mind enough to slow down and let me enjoy the talents I have? Will I ever find the answers I am looking for that will tell me everything is as it should be. All is right in my world and I am ready to share it with another? Will I ever be as confident in my future as my family and friends are? Will I ever hit a goal I have set for myself and be satisfied enough with it that I can stop and enjoy the success before I feel the need to succeed at a higher level. Will I ever meet and expectation in an endeavor that I can be please with and not have to exceed? Will I ever find an end to any of the beginnings in my life? Will I ever put to rest the fears of my past and awake the future I desire?
Do not dwell in the past,
do not dream of the future,
concentrate the mind on the present moment.
- Buddha
- Buddha
This quote by Buddha is taped to the the Misfit refrigerator. It fits our home well and is a daily reminder to all of us under one roof that today is what we should live for, making the memories of tomorrow and forgetting about the fears of our past. It is a quote that is a gentle reminder to all of us that if we dwell in our past we are not starting our day with new hopes of a better tomorrow. That the future begins at this moment, on this day, and each minute we move forward in a life free of fears of the past we are headed in the right direction. Mistakes will be made, lessons will be learned and life will go on.
I try to look at daily life as a celebration of all things accomplished in the goodness of life. To be the young Christian man I want to be in my journey to Heaven. To be the best me I can be and not disappoint those that believe in me. To lead my life with a solid mind and a loving heart. To make strangers my friends and see the best in others. To live by the laws of our government and the commandments of God.
Why is this not good enough for me? Why is good enough for everyone else not good enough for myself? What changes can I make in me to match what they see outside and who I am on the inside?\ Where can I find the answers to the questions that keep me a prisoner inside the depths of a soul darkened by the past that never goes away.
Psalm 139:14
"I will praise thee;
for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made:
marvelous are thy works;
and that my soul knoweth
right well."
Free Me, so that I may Free Myself - a plea by Jett Pauling
