Henry David Thoreau once said

"For an impenetrable shield

Stand inside yourself"

As I've come to get to know such a variety of people over my lifetime, I'm coming to the conclusion that the strongest people are those who known themselves best and who work endlessly toward making their person as strong as they can be. They literally have the power to shield themselves from anything that could penetrate them.

I still have much to learn about myself, as I think most of us do, since we are very complex beings whose power and strength has only slightly been tested. But I realize that working toward my strongest self is some of the most important work I can do.

What I've also concluded is that the strongest people I know surround themselves with other strong people--ones who don't need to be constantly bouyed up or who continually have to carry someone else's weight. They are people who give a little and take a little, but need no crutch to carry them day in and day out.

As my hubby and I went through our "life goals" together last night, I was encouraged to discover that not only were our goals fairly individual, but they were also fairly similar. We want each other to be involved in each goal and we need each other's support and strength to get there. Its nice to know that my hubby and I are both strong people who could probably manage on our own pretty well--but who still feel the need for each other in enough ways that our biggest life goal is to stay a happy, healthy family who can be a source of strength for other families, too.

So, yes, Mr. Thoreau, I agree: Stand Inside Yourself. But may I suggest that we also stand beside people who, too, know themselves and will make our stances stronger.

One of my dearest friends asked me why I think some people always seem to pick the short straw while others always seem to sail through life.

I've thought about this all week in hopes to give my clearest of answers. So here goes:

Point One: At church the other week someone stood up and said something to the effect of, "Satan just wants us to be miserable." I had to hold my own arm down and my mouth closed as I refrained from shouting a huge rebuttle. In my opinion, Satan wants us to be HAPPY but in doing things that are stalling our progression to our ultimate goal (put specific religion aside and focus on ultimate life-and-afterlife goals). C.S. Lewis supports this concept (or maybe I support the his thoughts on this concept...) in his brilliant book The Screwtape Letters. When we find ourselves joyful in doing things that are actually hindering our true happiness/goals, THEN he is doing his job successfully.

Point Two: I have a hard time believing that we all sat around in Pre-Earth Life and made lists of the things we could and couldn't handle and made up a blue print of what exactly we'd go through. BUT, I LIKE to believe that God recognizes our physical, emotional, spiritual, and cognitive abilities, strengths, and weaknesses and sees that one trial or another may be more suitable to teach us something than another. When I watch my babeh run around the house and come to a place where he's stumped, I can tell straight away if I should say, "Keep trying" or run to his aid. I think the same goes with our Heavenly Parents (if you should believe we have them.)

Point Three: The fact of the matter is that EVERYONE has some kind of struggle going on in their lives all the time, serious or just troubling, internal or obvious. The examples are endless, but my point is that no one is at all times care/worry/pain free. "Pain is inevitable, Misery is optional, but Joy is a choice." We all get to draw the short straw in some form or another, but we all just choose to bare the burdens differently.

So, my conclusion is this: We all suffer in some way or another. We all have burdens that seem too heavy to bare at times in our life. And we all have a choice in how to deal with them. We, nor God, in my opinion, necessarily CHOSE what murky waters we'd have to wade through to learn the lessons we need to in life, but we GET TO choose if we are going to find goodness in the experiences and keep on our track to our ultimate goals...or if we are going to let ourselves be stalled or led off track and let ourselves find joy in the attention and the pitty and the woah-is-me-s or even *in the little things that aren't going to be useful in getting us to our ultimate goals in the long run. The trickiest part of this whole life experience is learning how to buck up and keep moving. My sister in law always says, "Cry a river, build a bridge, and get over it, would you!?" Its hard to get over and through struggles. But it isn't impossible.

Its so much easier to say than do, I realize. And its even easier to just say you've drawn a short straw and hope for someone to save you. But I think our parents (both here and Heavenly) and our friends can see when to say, "KEEP TRYING!" and will do all they can when they know we need a little more than just encouragement. Nobody just sails through life...no one that I know, at least. We all just have to not look at the other straws in the handful and just learn to believe that what you've got infront of you is for your good no matter what happens. Again, easier said that done...but saying it is a good mantra...

Any other opinions out there?

*There is nothing wrong with making lemonade out of lemons. My heavens, we MUST make a huge amount of lemonade in order to stay sane in this life. But in The Screwtape Letters we see that sometimes finding joy in the things that aren't useful to us and aren't helping us and allowing ourselves to stay in the hole that we've found ourselves in (rather than finding a way out), THAT is when the Devil has his sneaky grip around our little necks. Brilliant book. EVERYONE should read it.