My family, extended included, and I celebrated my grandfather’s 95th birthday this past weekend. He is my longest living relative so far. It was wonderful to celebrate with him for his longevity.

After the celebration some of us went over to visit more at his home, and I asked him what it felt like to be nearly a full century.

I don’t normally like to talk about current events in my blogs because the world is a very frustrating place, and I don’t like to give the craziness any more publicity than it already receives; however, sometimes the chaos is hard to ignore. We have seen some bad instances this past week because of hatred. Unfortunately, rioting and violent protests have almost become the norm over the past ten or so years, and the truth is, there is a lot of hatred on both sides.

So, this week I have been struggling with what to blog about. I will be honest, I have had a lot of new things happen recently that have kept me busy. I have been asking myself, well, what Christian principle am I learning through all this? Last week’s blog was definitely motivated by the changes that are occurring in my family’s lives. Yet, this week, I had writer’s block until one of my closest friends gave me an idea.

Abraham walked in complete faith. I know we all know the story, but it still amazes me how much faith he had. We know that it was his faith that made him heed God’s voice to leave Harran at the age of 75 to go to an unknown land that God promised him (Genesis 12:4-5). He literally walked in faith. 

Now we know he was not perfect—he did have his moments of fears—but he overcame them. He is known as a pillar of faith in Hebrews chapter eleven.

The other night my husband and I were talking, and he said that there was something that hit him that made him stop to think about for a while. I asked him what it was. He stated that he realized that there wasn’t anyone that he agreed with 100 percent, 100 percent of the time. What stopped him was the realization that I was included. Honestly, it didn’t really come as a surprise to me because we don’t agree all the time. However, it did get me to contemplate this truism. 

I just got back from a week-long camp with a bunch of teens. I am so exhausted. Teenagers are full of endless energy. I cannot wait for the day that I will no longer become tired, but alas, I must wait until God’s kingdom comes for that to happen. However, despite my exhaustion the camp was an awesome experience. It is always enjoyable to see how the body of Christ moves even within our youth.

There is a lot of desire these days to unplug. Today a lot of us are connected to our many devices. In fact, it is hard for me to go at least an hour without checking my email, getting online to “research” something, social media, or news, or… The internet is like a black hole. You plug into it and time is just sucked away. What seems like five minutes ends up being an hour wasted. So, it does seem like a good idea for our mental health and well-being to unplug more often from the internet

I know I have written quite a few blogs about facing trials here lately. In fact, I didn’t even realize, until last week, the flowing theme that has been in my past few blogs. I guess it just shows that, obviously, I am currently in the midst of various trials.

Well, I want to focus on hope today. My family and I love rainbows. 

I am part of a small women’s Bible study that just started. I did miss the first meeting because my daughter and I had head colds. Spring is great but not great on the sinuses. Well, we are studying the book of James. James happens to be one of my favorite books of the Bible. All the books are great and very important, but for some reason James stands out for me.

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to do nothing at all. I really think God is trying to teach me how to be still, let go, and trust Him. I know how I am supposed to behave when facing trials that I can’t fix, but I still find myself fretting and trying to figure out a solution. As if I can somehow control the situation and make the problems go away.

I know some people, me included, that struggle with truly loving themselves. I am not meaning that we hate ourselves. We just struggle with loving ourselves by liking who we are instead of wishing to be something else. Some of us also struggle with loving ourselves by not forgiving ourselves when we make mistakes. Instead we rehash the mistakes over and over, wishing we could go back in time and have a “do-over.” There are also some of us that struggle with loving ourselves because we are afraid that we will end up becoming prideful and start having the worldly self-love of caring about themselves more than we care about anyone else or esteeming oneself above others.

I know that I have said this many times before, but I will say it again, life is hard sometimes. Maybe hard doesn’t have the punch it should, but I am a Christian blogger, so I will stay with the word “hard.” I don’t know anyone who hasn’t gone through at least one tragedy. In fact many people close to me are going through some type of trial. Some of the trials, on a scale of one to ten, maybe are only at a four, but I have people close to me that are going through trials that are beyond ten, in my opinion.

I have turned another year older this week, and I hope that I am a wee bit wiser. When I get close to my birthday, I find myself contemplating the past year. To be honest, since my birthday falls very close to Unleavened Bread, I start introspection at Passover and continue it until my birthday. 

I have a friend that tries to live his life by the motto, “Speak evil of no one. Speak good of everyone.” It is a very good motto to go by, and it is also Godly. Paul tells Titus, “Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men” (Titus 3:1-2, emphasis mine).