Reason #593
Aaron and I started a bible study tonight called Love and Respect. We figured there's no better time to work towards having a good marriage than the present, so we met up after work for session one. I could write forever about the information I gained tonight, but I'll spare you. The one thing I did notice was that the information we were given seemed relatively easy. It wasn't anything I hadn't ever heard before, and it wasn't anything revolutionary. And so I wondered why something that seems as if it should be so easy requires a lot of hard work. Seems contradictory, doesn't it?
I'm sure I'll have a lot of thoughts to share as we go through this study, but tonight's main topic was about getting stuck in the crazy cycle. And although this is in reference to marriage, I think we can pretty much apply it to anything in life. You have to work to stay out of the crazy cycle, and you have to work to get out of the crazy cycle if you fall in it. For marriage, this was the cycle of feeling unloved and disrespected. Because for some reason, we believe that our lives should be easy. Work should be easy, school should be easy, relationships should be easy, life should be easy. But how many success stories were born from ease? How many successful people reached their peak without hard work? Sure, you've got those prodigies that pop up every now and then, but even they put in a lot of work perfecting their ability. And so regardless of whether or not we like it, we're going to have to work at something eventually.
As the old saying goes, "this is where the men are separated from the boys." True, right? Work is where we not only see people's abilities, but we also see their ethic. We see whether or not they are a producer. Are they lazy and unproductive? Most importantly, we see their hearts. Do they care? Do they even try? Because caring, trying, and being a hard work will take you a long way in life no matter what the topic might be.
And so this is where we struggle as a culture, and this is where I struggle as a person. I don't mind doing work as long as it's manageable and easily achievable. If I'm assigned a task I can knock out without any trouble, that's fine. But is that really work or is that just getting by? See, I think we've become fine with getting by and we've forgotten how to really work. Because work should be exactly that... work. It should require some effort and labor. It should challenge us and grow us. Our work should produce results, and noticeable ones at that. Yet we so often sit back, do just enough to get by, and walk away when much more is required of us because it just seems to be too much.
If you ever want to get far in life, you're going to have to work. If you want to achieve success in your job, your education, your marriage, your family life, it's going to require hard work. Sure, you can do enough to get by for a while, but it may not get you very far and it probably won't get you to an ideal spot. And so you have to be willing to work if you want good results. Work on yourself, your behaviors, your actions, your ways. Work on being a better spouse, employee, student, or family member. And remember, work is a good thing. After all, the Lord created it for us, and our hard work, when we honor Him by it, is never in vain. You know, they say the best things in life are worth working for, but I suppose only the hard workers are the one who will find that out.
#593 - Because He created work to be good, which is what we often receive from our hard work.
"Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty." - Proverbs 21:5
I'm sure I'll have a lot of thoughts to share as we go through this study, but tonight's main topic was about getting stuck in the crazy cycle. And although this is in reference to marriage, I think we can pretty much apply it to anything in life. You have to work to stay out of the crazy cycle, and you have to work to get out of the crazy cycle if you fall in it. For marriage, this was the cycle of feeling unloved and disrespected. Because for some reason, we believe that our lives should be easy. Work should be easy, school should be easy, relationships should be easy, life should be easy. But how many success stories were born from ease? How many successful people reached their peak without hard work? Sure, you've got those prodigies that pop up every now and then, but even they put in a lot of work perfecting their ability. And so regardless of whether or not we like it, we're going to have to work at something eventually.
As the old saying goes, "this is where the men are separated from the boys." True, right? Work is where we not only see people's abilities, but we also see their ethic. We see whether or not they are a producer. Are they lazy and unproductive? Most importantly, we see their hearts. Do they care? Do they even try? Because caring, trying, and being a hard work will take you a long way in life no matter what the topic might be.
And so this is where we struggle as a culture, and this is where I struggle as a person. I don't mind doing work as long as it's manageable and easily achievable. If I'm assigned a task I can knock out without any trouble, that's fine. But is that really work or is that just getting by? See, I think we've become fine with getting by and we've forgotten how to really work. Because work should be exactly that... work. It should require some effort and labor. It should challenge us and grow us. Our work should produce results, and noticeable ones at that. Yet we so often sit back, do just enough to get by, and walk away when much more is required of us because it just seems to be too much.
If you ever want to get far in life, you're going to have to work. If you want to achieve success in your job, your education, your marriage, your family life, it's going to require hard work. Sure, you can do enough to get by for a while, but it may not get you very far and it probably won't get you to an ideal spot. And so you have to be willing to work if you want good results. Work on yourself, your behaviors, your actions, your ways. Work on being a better spouse, employee, student, or family member. And remember, work is a good thing. After all, the Lord created it for us, and our hard work, when we honor Him by it, is never in vain. You know, they say the best things in life are worth working for, but I suppose only the hard workers are the one who will find that out.
#593 - Because He created work to be good, which is what we often receive from our hard work.
"Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty." - Proverbs 21:5