It's never too late to live happily ever after

What keeps you going when there are so many odds stacked against you that your human inclination is to just give up? When it seems that the waves just keep coming. Crashing on your head. Knocking you under......and you can't catch your breath. You can feel the blackness coming. You keep fighting and fighting. At first, panic might set in as you keep struggling but then eventually and inevitably the desire to just surrender settles in. Most give up. They lose the battle. Whether it's to depression, drinking, drugs, bitterness, cynicism...... or even suicide. I've been there....I know the temptation to give up. I know what it's like to be so tired, so weary. What is the difference then between those that surrender......... and those who don't? I think it all boils down to one word:

HOPE

Through my entire adult life I have always had one saying that I always came back to when this subject came up in one way or another.... I'd always look at them and smile and say "I believe in happy endings." (I know Greg has heard me say this probably a thousand times.... and Greg I DO still believe in happy endings.... and I think you're going to get one too! Look how things are working out for you and Joyce and I think it will get sweeter and sweeter as time goes by if you INVEST in it). Through the childhood that I had, the rocky first marriage, subsequent divorce, abusive marriage, the evil one's molestation charges, trial, hearing, single parenthood, deaths, betrayals, blah blah blah........ I've never given up. Oh I've had my down moments, but that's all they were in the grand scheme of things...... merely moments on the timeline of my life. I've always been able to say that I know that I know that I know that things will be okay. Because it all boils down to that one core belief....... I, Veronica, believe with every cell in my body and every fiber of my being in happy endings.

Why? How? Most people ask me that after talking to me and hearing of what I've been through. They usually first ask me how I keep such a positive attitude, how am I not bitter, how did I not kill that man, and then how can I, after all that I've been through, still possibly believe in happy endings? It took me a lot of thought and some analyzing to be able to figure it out simply because I've just always had that optimism inside of me. I can't remember ever being any other way, so I've never had to figure out why. But after thinking about it it's actually pretty simple for me.......

Romans 15:13 "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost."
I have Jesus. Plain and simple. I may not always be as close to him as I once was or as close as I should be, but just because I've taken a couple of steps back doesn't mean that HE'S gone anywhere. I know that there is a greater plan. I know that in that great plan there is a plan for me and I know that he loves me and wants the best for me. I know that I'm being taken care of and that as long as I stick to him it's all going to work out just fine. He WANTS the best for me. He WANTS to see me happy and successful and in love and fulfilled and helping others, etc. Trouble is what you bring on yourself....the rest is just life. And either way it too will pass. It's that still small voice that you have to listen to. Sometimes it's easier to hear than others.... but it's always there. You have to have faith that it's always there..... that's a whole other blog I know! :) Here are some quotes that I love regarding hope:

"Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again."

"We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.”

--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr


"Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out.”


"The bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you refuse to make the turn."

Hope is plowing through despite the obstacles and defeat that have come your way. Defeat comes to ALL OF US! Sorrow, heartbreak, weariness, betrayal, death, sadness..... those are not new things that were invented just for me....or for you! You and I are not today or ever going to go through something that has not been common to ALL mankind. We as humans tend to panic when things happen. That's what's really at the heart of despair. FEAR. I believe that there are only two basic emotions in this life. Everything can be traced back to either LOVE or FEAR. And despair is just a bunch of fear that's getting the best of you. Afraid that the pain won't pass, afraid that it will never get any better, afraid that we've hurt someone, etc. Well when fear gets hold of you are you supposed to just roll over and die??? NO! Jesus said to "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk!" So what if you're afraid!??!

DO IT AFRAID!

You get up and you press on. He gives us the hope and the ability but we have to help ourselves too. There were three commands in that bible verse. RISE..... pick yourself up! TAKE UP THY BED..... do the work. WALK.....keep moving forward! When you can't hear the voice of hope loud and clear you just have to have faith that if you follow those steps that it's going to work out just fine. Just like baking a cake. I know that I'm not a great cook, but I also know that if I follow a recipe closely I'll get the right results. You just have to have faith.

Sheila Walsh once said, "All you have to do is gather up your soul and determine that in Christ you will be a woman of courage, a woman of conviction, a woman in control of her fear, a woman of faith."

The world has nothing to offer me. Where would I turn if I were just simply in the world? If I were too stubborn to acknowledge God in my life? Too proud to admit I needed or believed in God? To bored with the whole "church thing"? You know where I'd be? I'd be depressed, suicidal or drinking and drugging to try and numb the pain. No way, that's not the path I'm choosing. We choose death.... or we choose life.

I love the old email forward that goes around about the guy who's always been so optimistic about everything and then he's in a horrible accident. He knows how serious it is by looking at the dr's and nurses faces. He decides right then and there that he wants to live and he tells them as they're working on him "I've made the decision to live today! PLEASE WORK ON ME AS IF I AM ALIVE.... NOT AS IF I'M ALREADY DEAD." That's me. I'm choosing the path of life.... not of death. If something horrible happens, I have been in the past and I will in the future be just fine...and that's simply because I still believe in happy endings. :)