Saturday, May 1, 2021

Why do we Suffer?

Hello my dear reader!

How are you doing these days? Praying you are Destressing Your Stress!

Please forgive me for not posting much. I have been doing the Lord's work as best I know how and I'm not necessarily guided to blog for some reason. 

I'm learning more and more each day that God is, in fact, in charge and I am practicing faith, patience, and trust. I've come a long way from my adolescence to enlightenment, and I continue to teeter back and forth. At least I'm teetering on the enlightenment side much more than I use to.

So much to learn about spiritual nature in this life of human conditioning. So much to be grateful for and delicate about with others. 

I'm learning and learning.

I'm lifting and lifting.

I'm listening and listening.

I'm loving and loving.

I'm trying my hardest to live in the Christlike life, and with application and practice, I believe I'm getting better.

I found this draft of a post I wrote two years ago and don't think I ever published it. And if I did, I do not remember. Although, I do write similar posts with repetitive repetition. ~wink~

Anyways, I thought I'd post it.

Here it is...

I would like to discuss why we suffer for just a moment today.

How are you doing? Are you alright? It is my hope and my prayer that you, my dear sweet friend, are enjoying life.

Last night I had a dream God was telling me the most important things are charity, compassion, love, and understanding.

That was the entire dream, nothing more and nothing less. It's strange but, I've had about a dozen dreams in the past couple years of God talking to me.

It is my belief this dream is the key to our suffering...

Do you know I believe that I suffered much in my past? I do not talk about it because suffering is not my focus. Happiness, joy, and vitality are my focus.

Nevertheless, let me share a little glimpse of my struggles with you to give you an idea of why I am where I am in life.

I grew up with all brothers, and I've worked with all men for my entire adult life. My brothers, although very kind, were very tough on me. One of my brothers tried, in my opinion, to kill me twice when I was very young. I had no choice but to learn to toughen up and protect myself. This toughening up prepared me for my career.

When I was a young EMT (Emergency Medical Technician), I was the only female amongst about two hundred and fifty men. I think at the time there may have been one or two females that were part time. My first partner I ever had was extremely verbally abusive to me, and in my first year I was verbally and sexually harassed on more than a few occasions.

Within that first year I was strong enough to speak up, and after investigations some men were terminated. Due to rumors, because not everyone knew the facts, sometimes my work environment was made worse for me. There were quite a few men that made work very difficult for me. Although, I must mention, many of the men I worked with really lifted me with kindness, and most likely aware of what I was going through.

Another struggle I endured within my career was I had five friends die. Also, I was a single Mother, all the while attending and studying for graduate and undergraduate school, and I suffered from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

Amid all of this living, I was trying my hardest to manage my ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) which probably was the source of my suicidal ideations I had for probably greater than the first half of my life. Frequently, I could not focus or sit still, and it gave me great anger, anxiety, and depression.

All of that is just a fraction of what I went through, not to mention the heartache of raising a teenage boy, which quite possibly was the hardest part because we sometimes fought and it made me feel more horrible than anything else because of the great love I have for him.

Although this is but a glimpse of my challenges, I find it important to disclaim I don't normally discuss the bad because I know that it brings people down, and tends to bring back a bit of negative emotions for me. Many people believe it is necessary to discuss the difficulties in life but it just makes us relive our challenges, which keeps us in negative emotions that DO NOT belong to us.

I have learned to love myself enough to focus on the affirmative, which happens to be Jesus Christ, the light of this world. 

The reason I share this is because all of my adversity has lead me to the amazingly, awesome life I have now. My appreciation for others and myself is too large for words. 

Without my challenges, there is no way I could have such gratitude for my life.

It is my humble opinion that we suffer so that we may learn from human experience that we are spiritual beings. It is my belief that if we did not have a hard time we may never turn to God and discover the power of faith to over come fear, aka the negative.

If we are angry, anxious, or depressed it is quite literally our purpose to connect to God, and overcome these afflictions so that we may have immense joy.

When we release these negative emotions that do not belong to us, we may have happiness, joy, and vitality for life. 

Then! 

Then! 

Then! 

We may be an example to others and lift them up so that they can, and will experience elation too. That is our purpose! That is the purpose for our suffering, so that we may turn to and connect to God, discover He is real, and know joy so we may lift others up too.  

It is possible to be lifted to a level of eagerness and excitement for this life, and be the example so others can and will experience this too.

Just like the kindness given to me that lifted me in times of hardship, by the men in my occupation, when I was suffering such anguish, we can be there for another.

We are all in this together!

Back to my dream...

It is so very important to have charity, compassion, love, and understanding for others but first we must have these behaviors for ourselves. These are the keys to healing. These are the truths to overcoming our difficulties.

The sufferings are the negative emotions, and the remedies come from connecting to God, which is connecting to love by creating behaviors from beliefs of charity, compassion, love, and understanding. It all starts with the self. 

It is my prayer that you, my dear sweet brother/sister, my dear wonderful friend, will thoughtfully connect to God and practice more habits of charity, compassion, love, and understanding for yourself, and that it will become a habit of immense joy, which will relieve all negative emotions.

Our suffering is for our spiritual expansion.

Our suffering is to turn to God, and find out how real He is.

Our suffering is a big part of our purpose. It is our purpose to find out we can seek, and find relief by desire. The human conditioning gives us fear by default, and we can, and will discover we have the free will to choose what we desire.

The lesson is ALWAYS faith, patience, and trust. 

The homework is ALWAYS application, practice, and repetition.

That is all...

Except...

I love you... of course ~wink~

Speak soon...

Elizabeth