Where are you, Friend?

Are you doing what you always thought you would do? Are you working at your “dream” job? Are you happy working where you’re at? What if you’re happy but it’s still not where you want to be? What if you’re not happy at all? Do you consider yourself a success, or a failure? What about your friend’s job that you wish you had? What about your friend’s house? Don’t forget about all those vacations you never get to take.

Friend, let me tell you about me. I am not doing what I always imagined, I’m not at my “dream” job, I don’t make tons of money, and I still dream about my “dream” job (which happens to be a stay at home mom with an at home daycare). But friends, when we accept Heavenly father, he is on our side and we tend to view life a little differently after accepting him. Every day when I go to work, instead of thinking about how much I would love to have some children right now and be at home with them and teaching them all kinds of things and playing with them on snow days. . . I think of something else. . .

I think to myself, I am so thankful to have a job, to help provide for me and my husband. I am thankful for co-workers who have become more like family to me, and I am thankful to have a great boss. I am so thankful to come to work every day and enjoy my job. Don’t get me wrong, there are aspects of my job I do not like; however, I choose to be thankful for them instead of dwelling over getting those particular tasks done. Since doing so I have become so much more efficient and have gotten particularly good at those tasks, and now they take me no time to complete. Even though I still don’t enjoy them, at least I don’t hate them anymore.

But friends’, trying to get you to be thankful for your job (in our economy) was not my mission on this post. Even though you should with un-employment rates how they are. My mission for this post was to tell you to be happy with who you are and what God has blessed you with and to live with love in your heart. Also, to tell/show you how to be thankful for things you don’t like. To you your blessings may not seem like much, but let’s take a step back and look again.

Do you have children, family, pets, a church family, a job, people who depend on you for your help, material items, and a place to call home? But most importantly do you have love? (Not to be confused with a love life, but do you live your life with love?)

Friends, stop comparing yourself to one another. It’s only when you stop doing this that you will be able to be truly happy with what God has blessed you with.

Friends, be happy with the person you are, be happy with the life you have. Be happy with your choices in the past because they have made you who you are today. Choose happiness, choose to love others. Think about all your accomplishments, they are not small victories but those are real accomplishments and you should be proud of them. Don’t wish to be someone else, God made you perfectly in his eyes.

We have to stop wishing we could be celebrities, or have our friend’s life. Two of the Ten Commandments that I think apply to this post are Thou shall not covet and Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.  To covet is to not be thankful for what you have and wish you had what others have, for example, cars, jobs, houses, and clothing etc. And to make unto thee any graven image would be like replacing God with other idols such as money, material possessions, ideas, or status.

Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses. Stop comparing yourself and your life to others and how much better their life is. Be humble and thankful for what you have in life and if you are truly unhappy try to change what you can. Pray for opportunities to make those changes in your life. God has blessed every one of us with special talents and we shouldn’t let them go to waste. God does love you and he knows your name.

Friends, be thankful for what you have, and be thankful for what God has given.  If what I am saying is a whole new world to you, use baby steps, but know that you can get there.

With Love

Tara