Several years ago, just days before Christmas, I found out that my 7+ year marriage was over. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know who to be. I didn’t know where to go or how to act. I opened my eyes to find the world I’d created had crumbled because I built in on things that change and grow; it wasn’t laid on a solid foundation.
I spent the next year trying to find myself. I needed to really figure out who I was.
Maybe you have been there. Maybe you are there now. There are so many experiences in life that induce these feelings: death of a loved one, relocation, break-ups, infertility, empty nest, and sometimes the anticipated “18-21” range where you are no longer a girl but not quite yet the woman you desire to be.
So my question is what is stopping you? Why are you unhappy? And if you are happy how do you accomplish that?
I know the journey I’ve taken to get to a place where I’m joy filled and less stressed. I’m anxious to hear what others think.
I have no idea why I am posting about this or why I have a sudden passion to dig into the bible about it but I thought I’d chat it out with you girls first.
Oh, and I’ll be posting about our Spiritually Clean Home every Monday. I want those posts to be meaty and relevant. I don’t want to just throw them together. It is something that has drastically changed our life and I want to share it the best way possible.
I am in my 60′s and struggle with being happy. I am a housewife and live a comfortable life. I am happily married and my children are married with children of their own. I try to be content with that. I really struggle with getting old. I actually battle feeling ashamed for “letting myself go” as I look at my skin developing wrinkles and serious sagging. I feel that I am terribly represented by the media (and could talk about THAT in your question on anger). I don’t really know what to do with myself and my time. I am very shy and volunteering or other such things are very intimidating (and frankly, uninteresting) to me. Actually, I have done a great deal of it in my life, I just don’t really see a place where I would enjoy it or be very helpful anymore. I guess I am writing this because I know a lot of your followers are way younger that I am. I wish I had pursued some of my dreams when I was younger, instead of thinking that I had plenty of time for it all later. Later has come and now my body hurts and is unable to take the punishment of some of those dreams. My mind isn’t as sharp and I find learning new things is getting harder. I now really understand being “stuck in a rut”. I recently took a scrapbooking class and was shocked at how hard it was to understand what the instructor wanted. I have seen lots of seniors struggle with the simplest of things and now I am one of them. There is little compassion or tolerance for the elderly and while I am not particularly old, I am getting really close to it. I am looking for activities that will stimulate my mind and exercise my body, but I find it easy to just watch the world go by. I know the Lord is trying to turn me (like a big old battleship turns, SLOWLY). He is taking me out of my comfort zone with jury duty next week, and I am doing all I can to see it as a good opportunity to be beneficial and actually useful. It’s about the scariest thing I can think of doing, so I am leaning very heavily on Him. He didn’t bring me to it to not take me through it. Right? Right! Anyway, I guess this is my take on your question. I would say, that while you are young, don’t assume you will be able to do what you can do now. Prepare yourself for an older you. Definitely pursue your dreams. I am impressed by your blog and all the interests you have. May God richly bless you and your precious family.
I’m blissful happy recently, the frustrating circumstances in my life have not changed but my relationship with God has! As I have grown in my revelation of Him I have a deep rooted understanding of his complete extravagant love for me. Everything else can fail in life but I will still be His! Paul learnt to be content in all circumstance. The culture we live in puts such a desire in us that we need to be ‘happy’ all the time, I guess my aim is to learn to be consistently content rather than happy! Thank you for the post!
This is a God thing for sure! I have actually been asking myself this question lately. I will greatly appreciate your insight.
such a great thing to contemplate and study. I know I am in the midst of this a bit because I just relocated after living the last 12 years of my life in SC. I’m now in TN and have only been here for about 3 weeks and I am still in the midst of this transition as we are living with my parents and we desperately need our own place. The only thing I know to do is to continue to just stand in the word because I know HE will get me through this place and I know that over all I am happy but right now I am in an uncomfortable place. My happiness thankfully doesn’t rest in where I am at but who I rely on.
I’m sure someone else will have something pretty awesome to say. Looking forward to the other responses.
I have moments when I’m not happy but I am mostly very happy