on having it hard

Do you ever feel like people just don't know how hard you have it? I know I have. There have been times before when I've felt like I'm drowning in my circumstances, yucky daily norms, or hardships and I've thought I wish I had it as easy as so and so. But truly, we all face hardships, tough circumstances, less than rosy daily norms. When we get our faces out of our own muck and take a look around, we realize we aren't as alone in struggle as we may feel.

{this image from their website}

I recently read a blog post from friends of ours who have been serving in Africa and have returned home for a bit. I was reading Jami's post listing some of the contrasts of life in Africa vs life in America. Yes, there are obvious hardships there and things we take for granted here. This doesn't lessen our hardships any, but allows the perspective of another's struggles to somehow ease our own.

While staying with my cousin and her family in New York I realized a few of the daily hardships she faces raising a young family in an overpopulated city. The inconveniences that nag and wear down a person are her daily realities. I could see how it would be easy to lose sight of their mission to serve God in pastoral leadership when faced with such struggles. I was encouraged by their faithfulness! (Find out about them here!)

You wanna try something with me? Whatever struggle, lonely task, overbearing circumstance you may be in today let's decide to take a break from our every day perspective and look around at others who may be struggling. How oddly refreshing and rejuvenating it can be to encourage, help, relieve someone else!

We are all in this life together. Let's be a spot of fresh air!