Happiness Points: #57-62
Sunday, January 24, 2021
Peace to Live By Happiness Points: #57-62 - Daniel Litton
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[Transcript may not match broadcasted sermon word for word]
Happiness Point #57: Get to the Root of the Problem
We all face problems on a daily basis. Some problems small. Some problems big. They could be going on inside our heads, or they could be manifesting themselves in our world around us. What we need to understand, and this is fundamental for any level of happiness to be obtained, is that, in essence, there is a root to every problem. Often times I think that we just focus on the external symptoms of a problem and are not dealing with the root. It is only when we get down to the core, the underlying cause, that we can begin to truly tackle it. Sure, we can deal with the symptoms, but if we do that, we are going to have to do that day after day. It is not a good solution for the long term.
Let’s take, as a basic example, a common problem that individuals deal with on daily basis. Let’s say a person posts something to social media, and after hours of watching the post, it only gets three likes. The person had been hoping for 10, 15, or even 20 likes, but instead, they got three likes. This disappointment keeps coming up in the person’s mind. It is bothering them. So, how do we get at the root of a problem like this? Well, one can ask the question of “Why does it bother me that I got three likes instead of 20?” In pondering this question, the answer might be, “Well, I want to look good in front of others.” Then one could ask, “Why do you want to look good?” “Well, because I want to have a good reputation.” So, we can see that down the line from the issue of not getting enough likes is the issue of wanting to have a good reputation. So, one needs to surrender the desire of wanting to have a good reputation if one wants to be happy.
Or, perhaps, let’s look at another type of problem. Let’s say a person is insulted by their co-worker. “Why does that bother you?” one might ask. The person might respond, “It bothers me because I am not the way they said I was?” “Okay, let’s assume that’s true for a second. Why then does it bother you that they think that?” “Well, I want people to like me.” “Why does it bother you if they don’t like you?” “Because then that would mean I’m an inferior person.” “Why would it mean that?” As we can continue to dive down this conversation, we see that this particular person is concerned about doing a good job and others seeing that. So, both of these wants can be surrendered. The person could say, “It is okay if I do a good job and people think that, and it is okay if neither of these things is true.” By being surrendered, the person can escape the tormenting thoughts from the original insult.
People who aren’t surrendered are run by various insecurities. These can be anger, or pride (self-righteousness), or even fear. People who set high standards for others and even themselves are going to get angry when those standards aren’t being met. Likewise, people who want others to always do a 100% job and demand perfection from themselves are full of pride. Still yet, the person who has a problem with fear is going to see potential problems everywhere, whether these be threats or whether they have too strong of an attachment to whatever. We have to remember that at the end of the day that “All that matters is God.” When we keep God first, and everything else as optional, then we really don’t have to be bothered or concerned about anything. We give everything to God, and we live our lives in true happiness knowing we are in relationship with him.
Happiness Point #58: What You Want Usually Isn’t the Problem
In the New Testament, James give us some interesting insight on how to think about the things we want in life. These can be big things or small things. We know that generally it isn’t what we want that is bad, but often it is why we want it. This ties into to getting at the root of problems. Anyway, James said that within people there are evil passions rummaging about that cause people to act in bad ways to try to get what they want. And, sometimes, it is true that what we want is something bad. But I think more often it is not. I think we do see a lot of times that we want things that we place before God, on a higher pedestal before God. When we do that, James notes that we become adulterers, loving this world and trying to love God at the same time. That’s why it is important to get at the root of problems, to not just deal with symptoms, to be surrendered in everything.
Sounds like a tall order, doesn’t it? I would say that we should not understand being surrendered in everything as a one time decision. It’s not that one day we lift our head up from our hands and say, “From this point forward I am going to be surrendered in everything.” For a few that might be possible. But, for most of us, it is going to have to be an ongoing thing. That’s usually the way our sin-natures work. Dealing with sin often seems to be a daily thing, keeping our thoughts, words, and actions in check so they are pleasing to God. But, as we start to deal with the roots of problems, we start to understand better what is causing evil passions to come up in us. Then, we can surrender the underlying cause of the passion so that the sin is nipped in the bud, at least, for a while until we forget again.
For several years I struggled with the strong to desire to met a girl and get married. It wasn’t until I was around 30 years old that I decided I even wanted to get married. Once I did, however, I was pretty eager to make it happen. I would say my desire within myself to do that became too strong. It definitely wasn’t surrendered. After three or four years of getting nowhere, I finally came to realize that I needed to surrender this desire. I could not have the ‘want’ of getting married someday interfere with my relationship with God and even my pursuit of happiness. The want was actually taking away my happiness. Once I decided one day that it was okay if I got married, and it was okay if I didn’t, then I felt a whole lot happiness inside of myself. The truth is, I don’t need any person in my life beside God in order to be happy. That realization brought me a boat-load of freedom.
We all have things like this, idols let’s say, or evil passions, as James talked about, that come into our lives from somewhere deep within ourselves to try to ruin our lives. That’s what they really do, isn’t it? These strong, unfulfilled desires ruin our lives because we value whatever it is too much. We want it too much. We get mad and upset with God for not giving us what we want. All we needed to do, according, again, to James, was ask God for it and wait, surrendering the desire as we wait. Sure, we have asked God many, many times, but when we haven’t surrendered the desire, there isn’t much hope in God helping us. That’s because without the desire surrendered, we are not in a right place for God to give us what we want. In effect, if he were to give us what we wanted, it may end up taking us even further from himself instead of bringing us closer to himself.
Happiness Point #59: Having Fun Increases Productivity
There are two things I want us to consider in having fun increasing our productivity. The first is that we need to realize that life isn’t found in always working hard. That statement may have just lifted some eyelids. Surely, people can point to thousands and thousands of examples where working hard pays off. I understand that. What I am saying is that with whatever we are doing, life flows along much better if we find fun in doing it. Generally speaking, that means we aren’t going to be working quite as hard. But, it means that we will be working, yes productively, while we are having fun along our way. That’s why you see more modern companies like Facebook or Google setting up their office spaces in a certain way. They understand the importance of their employees ‘having fun’ while they work. I definitely think this business concept increases productivity.
Sure, we can work hard. We can work very hard. We can spend hours and hours totally engrossed in a project. We also know, usually, if we aren’t enjoying something about it, if we aren’t having fun, then we are so glad to get whatever it is over with. We are totally relieved when it is done. We also dread the next time we have to do it. This isn’t really how we should be spending our lives. I mean, I would rather work at a slower rate, while having fun, then work at a more efficient rate and yet be miserable. My belief is that life isn’t about getting this and that ‘done,’ but life is about enjoying the process with whatever it is that we are working on. If we don’t enjoy the process, then, really, what’s the point? Are we just getting stuff done for other people to enjoy?
This invariably means that in order to have fun on our journeys, in our work, that we are going to have to follow our hearts desires when deciding how we are going to contribute to the world. Most psychologists will tell you that not everyone is meant to do the same thing. We all have different things that we like, different things that we are good at. We aren’t all called to do the same thing. I got to emphasize this point because it isn’t taught everywhere. It being the case that we all like what we like, that means we should follow those likes when it comes to contributing to working in the world, to making a better society, to helping others. When we don’t follow what we like in our career, then we are going to find that after not too long, we are miserable.
God wants us to be doing what he designed and perhaps gifted us even to do. I mean, one doesn’t buy a sports car to go off-roading with. And one doesn’t buy an SUV to go racing in. It simply doesn’t make sense when we go against those internal drives of what we like. If we do that, we are trying to be something that we are not. We won’t feel supported by God, ourselves, or even others because we probably won’t be any good at what we are trying to do. On the flip side, when we do what we are good at, we know that’s what God wants us to be doing. We feel it inside our minds. We get positive feedback from others telling us we are good at this or that. That’s where we should be. And then we find that because we enjoy whatever it is so much, for us it really isn’t work, is it?
Happiness Points #60: Nobody is Your Happiness
People structure their relationships in different ways. Or, we could say, that people have different levels in how attached they are to others. We know, in reality, that we are only to be truly attached to one Person, and that is God. We also are aware that the Apostle Paul told us that we should not be dependent on anyone. One thing we could say is that the greater the dependency, the greater the attachment. And this is true even in the married relationship, or a person’s relationship with their kids. People can become too dependent on those relationships, to needy for the love of those relationships.
If we read our Bibles, we will see the theme over and over again that this world is transitory. Indeed, we will also notice that the marriage relationship is transitory. Jesus spoke clearly about this. If that relationship doesn’t last past this life, then that would also lead to the conclusion that parental relationships do not last. In evaluating all of this, we can go roundabout back to the fact that God is the only relationship we have of which is consistently here and consistently in the next life. Yes, we may have other relationships that carry over, but how that will look is certainly unclear. None of our friends will be the reason for our existence in the next life.
Understanding all of this, what does it mean? It means that in none of these relationships can we lay our foundation of happiness. As the world changes, and people come and go, that would be unwise. This world will not carry on as it has. Things change. Even if someone has been in your life all of your life up to this point (for example, let’s say your parents), they will eventually leave. So, things aren’t always as they seem they will be.
The Gospel writer John has told us that Jesus did not put his stock in any human being completely and entirely. A careful evaluation of Jesus’ life will show us that where he put his stock was in God. It was with God that he spent the majority of his close social time. It was God he was trying to please. I’m not saying we shouldn’t trust anyone; that is totally different from what I am talking about here. What I am saying is that nobody on this earth is our life. Nobody but God is the reason for our existence. That means, just like Jesus, we can only find true happiness in our relationship with God.
Happiness Points #61: Violate Your Own Rule Every Once in a While
A lot of us create our own rules that we follow in our daily lives. What I mean is that we have certain routines, or practices, that we have created that aren’t necessarily mandated by Scripture but of which we do to try to keep things in order. We may read our Bibles for twenty minutes every morning after waking up. We might spend ten minutes in prayer every morning. Perhaps we go to Bible study every Wednesday night. Or we meet so and so for coffee on Saturday mornings to discuss Biblical things. So, we have these rules that we keep in order to try to follow what we perceive from Scripture that we need to follow.
What I like to do, every once in a while, is violate these rules to keep them in check. I don’t want to become a robot. I don’t want to be going through the motions merely for the sake of going through the motions. So, every once in a while I might handle one devotional differently. Perhaps I’ll read something upon waking up that I normally wouldn’t read. I make sure I miss a Bible study every once in a while. I don’t want to just go every time because I feel I have to. This can also be a good way to caught up on stuff if we have fallen behind. If it is hanging out with friends, that too I have skipped in order to just spend some time with myself, doing what I just want to do. We can’t please everyone all the time, and sometimes we need to just do what we want to do.
So, whatever your rules or practices are, but sure that you do not become enslaved to them. Watch those practices because while we do a lot of good things, there is nothing that says we always have to do them every time. Breaks are good for minds, and to change up the routine. Sometimes the routine even gets stale, and by skipping something, or doing something differently, we can freshen things up. This keeps us in charge of our rules instead of them being in charge of us. That, I believe, keeps us happier, and that’s what we want to make sure of, that we are happy, while we are going through the motions.
Happiness Point #62: Keep Track of Past Victories
One thing I have taught myself to do over the last several years is to keep track of victories that occur in my life. These can be prayers that God has answered, good things that have happened to me, or bad situations that have turned out for the good. Whatever you list, by doing this practice you keep those things alive. Our minds have a tendency to forget the good things but always seem to easily remember the bad things. I don’t know how many times I have gone back and looked through my list and found something good that has happened that I totally had forgotten about. Unfortunately, our minds just have a tendency for easily forgetting the good things.
It is also fun to see how what we cover in our daily devotional time can manifest itself in our lives. Say we practice some new technique, or new way of thinking, that we then wait to see how it affects our lives. We may find a week or two into it that whatever it is has worked out for us. He have gained a positive advantage in our lives. So, we make note of that and then that will always be there for us to see in the future. Even if a small victory, it is a victory that can give us encouragement at any time.
Yes, this is what you are going to want to do when nothing good seems to happening for you. You are going to want to go back through your list of positive things that have happened so that you can instantly increase your happiness in the moment and give yourself hope for the future. If good things in the past happened, they can happen now or later. As a matter of fact, we can be pretty much certain that they will. It encourages us to see, “Well, God heard my prayer in the past and answered it, so he must be hearing me now and is going to answer it.” It would be nice if we didn’t need these types of reassurances, if we could always live a maximum faith level. But, unfortunately, we just know that this usually isn’t the case. We need encouragement from time to time.
I would have to say that this practice of keeping track of past victories has probably been one of the most beneficial things I have put into practice in my own life. It simply just bears a lot of fruit. It means that I never really have to be down. I can always go to take a gander at that list and know that, even if things aren’t happening right now, they will get better for me. I wish my mind didn’t easily forget about the good things, but unfortunately it has at times. Especially the smaller things. And your experience I’m sure he been the same. So, it is good to get those things permanently noted before they disappear in the past never to be remembered, to be lost in time, and for us to have to experience a victory all over again with no hope to encourage us.
- Daniel Litton
Happiness Point #57: Get to the Root of the Problem
We all face problems on a daily basis. Some problems small. Some problems big. They could be going on inside our heads, or they could be manifesting themselves in our world around us. What we need to understand, and this is fundamental for any level of happiness to be obtained, is that, in essence, there is a root to every problem. Often times I think that we just focus on the external symptoms of a problem and are not dealing with the root. It is only when we get down to the core, the underlying cause, that we can begin to truly tackle it. Sure, we can deal with the symptoms, but if we do that, we are going to have to do that day after day. It is not a good solution for the long term.
Let’s take, as a basic example, a common problem that individuals deal with on daily basis. Let’s say a person posts something to social media, and after hours of watching the post, it only gets three likes. The person had been hoping for 10, 15, or even 20 likes, but instead, they got three likes. This disappointment keeps coming up in the person’s mind. It is bothering them. So, how do we get at the root of a problem like this? Well, one can ask the question of “Why does it bother me that I got three likes instead of 20?” In pondering this question, the answer might be, “Well, I want to look good in front of others.” Then one could ask, “Why do you want to look good?” “Well, because I want to have a good reputation.” So, we can see that down the line from the issue of not getting enough likes is the issue of wanting to have a good reputation. So, one needs to surrender the desire of wanting to have a good reputation if one wants to be happy.
Or, perhaps, let’s look at another type of problem. Let’s say a person is insulted by their co-worker. “Why does that bother you?” one might ask. The person might respond, “It bothers me because I am not the way they said I was?” “Okay, let’s assume that’s true for a second. Why then does it bother you that they think that?” “Well, I want people to like me.” “Why does it bother you if they don’t like you?” “Because then that would mean I’m an inferior person.” “Why would it mean that?” As we can continue to dive down this conversation, we see that this particular person is concerned about doing a good job and others seeing that. So, both of these wants can be surrendered. The person could say, “It is okay if I do a good job and people think that, and it is okay if neither of these things is true.” By being surrendered, the person can escape the tormenting thoughts from the original insult.
People who aren’t surrendered are run by various insecurities. These can be anger, or pride (self-righteousness), or even fear. People who set high standards for others and even themselves are going to get angry when those standards aren’t being met. Likewise, people who want others to always do a 100% job and demand perfection from themselves are full of pride. Still yet, the person who has a problem with fear is going to see potential problems everywhere, whether these be threats or whether they have too strong of an attachment to whatever. We have to remember that at the end of the day that “All that matters is God.” When we keep God first, and everything else as optional, then we really don’t have to be bothered or concerned about anything. We give everything to God, and we live our lives in true happiness knowing we are in relationship with him.
Happiness Point #58: What You Want Usually Isn’t the Problem
In the New Testament, James give us some interesting insight on how to think about the things we want in life. These can be big things or small things. We know that generally it isn’t what we want that is bad, but often it is why we want it. This ties into to getting at the root of problems. Anyway, James said that within people there are evil passions rummaging about that cause people to act in bad ways to try to get what they want. And, sometimes, it is true that what we want is something bad. But I think more often it is not. I think we do see a lot of times that we want things that we place before God, on a higher pedestal before God. When we do that, James notes that we become adulterers, loving this world and trying to love God at the same time. That’s why it is important to get at the root of problems, to not just deal with symptoms, to be surrendered in everything.
Sounds like a tall order, doesn’t it? I would say that we should not understand being surrendered in everything as a one time decision. It’s not that one day we lift our head up from our hands and say, “From this point forward I am going to be surrendered in everything.” For a few that might be possible. But, for most of us, it is going to have to be an ongoing thing. That’s usually the way our sin-natures work. Dealing with sin often seems to be a daily thing, keeping our thoughts, words, and actions in check so they are pleasing to God. But, as we start to deal with the roots of problems, we start to understand better what is causing evil passions to come up in us. Then, we can surrender the underlying cause of the passion so that the sin is nipped in the bud, at least, for a while until we forget again.
For several years I struggled with the strong to desire to met a girl and get married. It wasn’t until I was around 30 years old that I decided I even wanted to get married. Once I did, however, I was pretty eager to make it happen. I would say my desire within myself to do that became too strong. It definitely wasn’t surrendered. After three or four years of getting nowhere, I finally came to realize that I needed to surrender this desire. I could not have the ‘want’ of getting married someday interfere with my relationship with God and even my pursuit of happiness. The want was actually taking away my happiness. Once I decided one day that it was okay if I got married, and it was okay if I didn’t, then I felt a whole lot happiness inside of myself. The truth is, I don’t need any person in my life beside God in order to be happy. That realization brought me a boat-load of freedom.
We all have things like this, idols let’s say, or evil passions, as James talked about, that come into our lives from somewhere deep within ourselves to try to ruin our lives. That’s what they really do, isn’t it? These strong, unfulfilled desires ruin our lives because we value whatever it is too much. We want it too much. We get mad and upset with God for not giving us what we want. All we needed to do, according, again, to James, was ask God for it and wait, surrendering the desire as we wait. Sure, we have asked God many, many times, but when we haven’t surrendered the desire, there isn’t much hope in God helping us. That’s because without the desire surrendered, we are not in a right place for God to give us what we want. In effect, if he were to give us what we wanted, it may end up taking us even further from himself instead of bringing us closer to himself.
Happiness Point #59: Having Fun Increases Productivity
There are two things I want us to consider in having fun increasing our productivity. The first is that we need to realize that life isn’t found in always working hard. That statement may have just lifted some eyelids. Surely, people can point to thousands and thousands of examples where working hard pays off. I understand that. What I am saying is that with whatever we are doing, life flows along much better if we find fun in doing it. Generally speaking, that means we aren’t going to be working quite as hard. But, it means that we will be working, yes productively, while we are having fun along our way. That’s why you see more modern companies like Facebook or Google setting up their office spaces in a certain way. They understand the importance of their employees ‘having fun’ while they work. I definitely think this business concept increases productivity.
Sure, we can work hard. We can work very hard. We can spend hours and hours totally engrossed in a project. We also know, usually, if we aren’t enjoying something about it, if we aren’t having fun, then we are so glad to get whatever it is over with. We are totally relieved when it is done. We also dread the next time we have to do it. This isn’t really how we should be spending our lives. I mean, I would rather work at a slower rate, while having fun, then work at a more efficient rate and yet be miserable. My belief is that life isn’t about getting this and that ‘done,’ but life is about enjoying the process with whatever it is that we are working on. If we don’t enjoy the process, then, really, what’s the point? Are we just getting stuff done for other people to enjoy?
This invariably means that in order to have fun on our journeys, in our work, that we are going to have to follow our hearts desires when deciding how we are going to contribute to the world. Most psychologists will tell you that not everyone is meant to do the same thing. We all have different things that we like, different things that we are good at. We aren’t all called to do the same thing. I got to emphasize this point because it isn’t taught everywhere. It being the case that we all like what we like, that means we should follow those likes when it comes to contributing to working in the world, to making a better society, to helping others. When we don’t follow what we like in our career, then we are going to find that after not too long, we are miserable.
God wants us to be doing what he designed and perhaps gifted us even to do. I mean, one doesn’t buy a sports car to go off-roading with. And one doesn’t buy an SUV to go racing in. It simply doesn’t make sense when we go against those internal drives of what we like. If we do that, we are trying to be something that we are not. We won’t feel supported by God, ourselves, or even others because we probably won’t be any good at what we are trying to do. On the flip side, when we do what we are good at, we know that’s what God wants us to be doing. We feel it inside our minds. We get positive feedback from others telling us we are good at this or that. That’s where we should be. And then we find that because we enjoy whatever it is so much, for us it really isn’t work, is it?
Happiness Points #60: Nobody is Your Happiness
People structure their relationships in different ways. Or, we could say, that people have different levels in how attached they are to others. We know, in reality, that we are only to be truly attached to one Person, and that is God. We also are aware that the Apostle Paul told us that we should not be dependent on anyone. One thing we could say is that the greater the dependency, the greater the attachment. And this is true even in the married relationship, or a person’s relationship with their kids. People can become too dependent on those relationships, to needy for the love of those relationships.
If we read our Bibles, we will see the theme over and over again that this world is transitory. Indeed, we will also notice that the marriage relationship is transitory. Jesus spoke clearly about this. If that relationship doesn’t last past this life, then that would also lead to the conclusion that parental relationships do not last. In evaluating all of this, we can go roundabout back to the fact that God is the only relationship we have of which is consistently here and consistently in the next life. Yes, we may have other relationships that carry over, but how that will look is certainly unclear. None of our friends will be the reason for our existence in the next life.
Understanding all of this, what does it mean? It means that in none of these relationships can we lay our foundation of happiness. As the world changes, and people come and go, that would be unwise. This world will not carry on as it has. Things change. Even if someone has been in your life all of your life up to this point (for example, let’s say your parents), they will eventually leave. So, things aren’t always as they seem they will be.
The Gospel writer John has told us that Jesus did not put his stock in any human being completely and entirely. A careful evaluation of Jesus’ life will show us that where he put his stock was in God. It was with God that he spent the majority of his close social time. It was God he was trying to please. I’m not saying we shouldn’t trust anyone; that is totally different from what I am talking about here. What I am saying is that nobody on this earth is our life. Nobody but God is the reason for our existence. That means, just like Jesus, we can only find true happiness in our relationship with God.
Happiness Points #61: Violate Your Own Rule Every Once in a While
A lot of us create our own rules that we follow in our daily lives. What I mean is that we have certain routines, or practices, that we have created that aren’t necessarily mandated by Scripture but of which we do to try to keep things in order. We may read our Bibles for twenty minutes every morning after waking up. We might spend ten minutes in prayer every morning. Perhaps we go to Bible study every Wednesday night. Or we meet so and so for coffee on Saturday mornings to discuss Biblical things. So, we have these rules that we keep in order to try to follow what we perceive from Scripture that we need to follow.
What I like to do, every once in a while, is violate these rules to keep them in check. I don’t want to become a robot. I don’t want to be going through the motions merely for the sake of going through the motions. So, every once in a while I might handle one devotional differently. Perhaps I’ll read something upon waking up that I normally wouldn’t read. I make sure I miss a Bible study every once in a while. I don’t want to just go every time because I feel I have to. This can also be a good way to caught up on stuff if we have fallen behind. If it is hanging out with friends, that too I have skipped in order to just spend some time with myself, doing what I just want to do. We can’t please everyone all the time, and sometimes we need to just do what we want to do.
So, whatever your rules or practices are, but sure that you do not become enslaved to them. Watch those practices because while we do a lot of good things, there is nothing that says we always have to do them every time. Breaks are good for minds, and to change up the routine. Sometimes the routine even gets stale, and by skipping something, or doing something differently, we can freshen things up. This keeps us in charge of our rules instead of them being in charge of us. That, I believe, keeps us happier, and that’s what we want to make sure of, that we are happy, while we are going through the motions.
Happiness Point #62: Keep Track of Past Victories
One thing I have taught myself to do over the last several years is to keep track of victories that occur in my life. These can be prayers that God has answered, good things that have happened to me, or bad situations that have turned out for the good. Whatever you list, by doing this practice you keep those things alive. Our minds have a tendency to forget the good things but always seem to easily remember the bad things. I don’t know how many times I have gone back and looked through my list and found something good that has happened that I totally had forgotten about. Unfortunately, our minds just have a tendency for easily forgetting the good things.
It is also fun to see how what we cover in our daily devotional time can manifest itself in our lives. Say we practice some new technique, or new way of thinking, that we then wait to see how it affects our lives. We may find a week or two into it that whatever it is has worked out for us. He have gained a positive advantage in our lives. So, we make note of that and then that will always be there for us to see in the future. Even if a small victory, it is a victory that can give us encouragement at any time.
Yes, this is what you are going to want to do when nothing good seems to happening for you. You are going to want to go back through your list of positive things that have happened so that you can instantly increase your happiness in the moment and give yourself hope for the future. If good things in the past happened, they can happen now or later. As a matter of fact, we can be pretty much certain that they will. It encourages us to see, “Well, God heard my prayer in the past and answered it, so he must be hearing me now and is going to answer it.” It would be nice if we didn’t need these types of reassurances, if we could always live a maximum faith level. But, unfortunately, we just know that this usually isn’t the case. We need encouragement from time to time.
I would have to say that this practice of keeping track of past victories has probably been one of the most beneficial things I have put into practice in my own life. It simply just bears a lot of fruit. It means that I never really have to be down. I can always go to take a gander at that list and know that, even if things aren’t happening right now, they will get better for me. I wish my mind didn’t easily forget about the good things, but unfortunately it has at times. Especially the smaller things. And your experience I’m sure he been the same. So, it is good to get those things permanently noted before they disappear in the past never to be remembered, to be lost in time, and for us to have to experience a victory all over again with no hope to encourage us.
- Daniel Litton