Being negative,
only makes a difficult journey
more difficult.
You may be given a cactus,
But you don't have to sit on it.
Once, many years ago, one of the foreign exchange students we had wanted a picture of herself pretending to sit on a cactus. I got out my camera, and she pretended to sit, I snapped the picture and she promptly fell on the cactus. Then, in trying to get herself off, she ended up with many more stickers in her hands, arms and legs, than she would have had. Hours of painstakingly pulling stickers with duct tape and tweezers later, she was finally able to move a little more freely. It was one of those experiences that none of us will ever forget, especially her.
Cacti are not fun to sit on. They hurt. Some of them have big stickers, and some have small, nearly invisible ones. Both kinds hurt. Both are hard to get out. Both leave a lasting impression! We all have difficult journeys. Just because I am not going through the exact same thing that you are, doesn't make my journey any less harder for me.
Life is not a competition against each other. If you get to heaven, that does not mean that I won't get there too. It is funny how people act that way sometimes. Like I have to be better than you, or I won't have any chance. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father doesn't compare us to each other, only to ourselves. I don't have to be perfect. I just need to be getting better at things everyday. He loves me when I succeed, and He loves me when I fail.
Being negative in our day to day lives, doesn't make our trials go any better. They don't go away, they don't even get easier. As a matter of fact, I would venture to say that being negative is a lot like sitting on that cactus. It only hurts us more. It leaves lasting impacts and none of them are positive. When we dwell on the negative, our mind becomes filled with all that is negative around us. I have learned that it only makes me more unhappy and miserable. When I focus on the negative, that becomes all I see. I can't see the blessings that might also be there. I can only see what my focus is on.
As I strive in my life to overcome negativity, I find myself more willing to acknowledge the blessings that are also there. I find myself working a little harder to be just a little better. I find that my faith increases and so does my humility. As I focus more on the positive, I find myself more willing to acknowledge Him in every aspect of my life. For me, that is so much better than a cactus!
haha, that cactus accident sounds very familiar. I did the same thing, when we visited grandpa's in california I fell on cactus and you had to use duct tape all over my body! Of course I had many other 'cactus days'. There were times when I was really negative and depressed that all I could think of was the worst thing I could do to myself(but didn't act on it!). After I broke up with my boyfriend, when I didn't get good grades or fought with friends, I always blamed and tried to destroy myself. But when I think of those times now I'm like, why was I so serious about them? Why did I put all my energy into being negative? Because now I don't feel anything about the past. When you start to put your focus on little fun things, then time does help. It took me almost 10 years, but I have more happy days than bad days!
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