By orsillam | 29th Feb 2008 | Filed under
Family,
LifeWe so often say or do things that hurt the people around us. The worst is that most of the time we are wrong and we are too proud to turn around and admit it. We seldom apologise when we hurt our loved ones because according to us they deserve it, and then in a few years time we find ourselves drifting apart and we wonder how this is possible. Maybe it is because the person we hurt, changes from lovingness, to not feeling anything and pretending, to a slow and quiet hate until one day when they have had enough. We hurt our partners, husbands or wives, parents and children on a daily basis, and most of the times it is because we do not understand them.
In today’s lives we are so focused on getting rich and successful that we forget the important people around us. The sad part is that when we leave this life we cannot take any of our richness with us, the only thing we can take with is the love for God and the love of our family and friends, and their love for us.
Let me tell you a little story. I know of a woman that truly loved her husband. Whenever he needed her to do things for him, she left what she was doing and she got it done. She was a good wife and a good mother. They relocated to a new town and because of circumstances she had to be there a week before him. He had to stay behind to finalise a few minor things. The day before he was suppose to drive down to be with them she sent him some messages that he just ignored. According to her knowledge he was with family and he could just as well have given her the five minutes of his time. She later received a very nasty message back from him, where he called her deep and true love “neediness”. He threw the love she had for him back in her face. According to her he was too busy getting things ready to leave to just give her a few minutes.
This is what I mean when I say that we are so consumed with the world and its things that we sometimes miss the more important things in life. We often try to compensate for the lack of love and time with money. We give our kids money and send them off so that we do not need to spend time with them. We buy the people we love expensive gifts hoping that they will not demand a little of our time.
How often have we not done the same thing to God. He reaches out to us in love and all we do is call it neediness and throw it right back into His face. Yet God does not give up on us. He carries on time after time and continues to show us His love. Maybe it is time that we give some of it back. Like the lady I mentioned above who didn’t ask for an entire day from her husband but only a few minutes of his time. God also just ask that we must spend a few minutes of our day with Him. He does not ask for hours only a few minutes.
Maybe we must go back and look at the things that are more important to us than having fame and fortune and start appreciating what’s in our lives a bit more, before it is to late.
By orsillam | 19th Feb 2008 | Filed under
LifeOne of the great things about having a two year old around is not only the fact that at this age they are like little parrots and one has to be extra careful with the things you say or do, but they also show interest in all the Disney movies going around. One of Matthews favorite movies is The Lion King and I also recently discovered that there is a lesson to be learned for all our grownups.
The scene that moves me the most is where Rafiki the monkey hits Simba the lion over the head with a stick. Simba wants to know why he is doing that and Rafiki replies that it does not matter because it is in the past. Simba then says that it still hurts, and this made me wonder; how many of us are allowing our past and the things that happened in our past to keep us from the future.
I don’t want to get married again because my previous husband was such a bad man, or I cannot have a successful career because my parents never sent me to university. I won’t be a good mother because I had an abortion when I was younger. We allow our past to haunt us and keep us from the things that rightfully belong to us.
It is in mans nature to sin and do things that we regret but why do we allow these things to dominate our lives. How many great opportunities have passed us by because we are not willing to let go of the past. People always say that history repeats itself, but isn’t the reason for this because we fear our past and use it to live our lives. Many people based their future on the past. How many people are living exactly the same lives as their parents. They work for a boss, or they run their fathers business even-though they hate it. How many of us are doing exactly the same jobs our parents did? I am one of those people, because my parents were teachers and I grew up in that environment I became a teacher.
We cannot change the past. Those are the things that happened whether it is good or bad. It is behind us. We came out the other side sometimes broken and in pieces and other times alive and we feel great about ourselves. I was one of the people that allowed the past to rule my life for a very long time. I was to afraid to try things and do things because I allowed the things of the past to govern me. It was only when I met my husband that he taught me that life is about living now and today and not in the past. If I did not take that step and went on that “blind date” I would not have met the perfect man and I would not have received the gift that God was about to give me. We so often ask God to change our circumstances, and He does he give us the key to unlock the chain that is holding us back. We must just see the key as a key and unlock the lock to free us from our baggage.
We are almost at the end of the second month for 2008, maybe it is time for us to live in the present and forget the past. The past is behind us and we cannot change that. The future is in front of us and we cannot live it yet. The important moment is here and now - let’s live it.