Obedient Lifestyle

When I think about the family, friends, or even strangers who took their own lives or that died of an illness, I always wonder if it could have been prevented. Like, what actually lead them to that point, and if we were there for them could it have been prevented, was there something someone could’ve done or said to trigger their brain to want to live or want to get healthier, and I know some illnesses can’t be reversed if too far along but what got them to be that sick, where did it start? I know we won’t find the answers to some of these questions but I still can’t help but think about it. Now we can all play the blame game and blame this person or even ourselves, but in reality, we will never know if we don’t stay close to these sad and sick people. What some don’t understand is that these issues usually start at a young age and most of the time go unnoticed, they are either embarrassed to talk about it, they don’t think anyone would care, or they feel they would get scolded from speaking their feelings. This is a huge problem in today’s world, we should always encourage our loves ones, even strangers to speak their feelings. Make someone smile today, we can always see who’s having a bad day. It could be the meanest looking scariest person and all you have to do is make them smile, I’ve done this before to someone who I thought would probably knock me out but I got them smiling and laughing. Happiness is really a cure and making someone forget their problems for a couple minutes may actually improve their well-being. Psychologists refer to such behavior as prosocial behavior and many recent studies have shown that when people have a prosocial focus, doing kind acts for others, their own happiness increases. It’s a win win situation.

Being happy matters more to your brain than you might think. In fact, feeling pleasure can be so stimulating for your brain that it is primed to respond to pleasure in a way that reinforces pleasure. Your brain offers rewards to steer you on a pathway to happiness, and you can offer your brain rewards that will encourage it to become even more finely tuned-and to grow well into your old age. Other reasons to want a happy brain: Negative mood variance disturbs your interaction with your environment, affecting your ability to perceive, remember, and reinforce existing or create new neural connections, while being happy improves your ability to be more cognitively alert and productive. Other than being much more fun to be around, being happy:

• stimulates the growth of nerve connections.
• improves cognition by increasing mental productivity.
• improves your ability to analyze and think.
• affects your view of surroundings.
• increases attentiveness.
• leads to more happy thoughts.

Happy people are more creative, solve problems faster, and tend to be more mentally alert. So these are the many reasons why we should encourage and to try our best to bring out the happiness in others.

Our troubled loved ones need us, especially the ones who think they have nobody to turn to. We really need to be more aware of them in our lives. This can be anyone; a scared friend, an abused wife or husband, a sick sister or brother, or even our parents. They may not open up to you right away but maybe one day they will, and even if they don’t they will know you care for them. We all need to talk, some take longer than others. Keeping feelings bottled up will only make things worse. To top it off some of these people never even heard of what God can do for them or what He is capable of. If you keep going to man for the temporary high/cure then you will keep ending up in the same situation. If someone really wants to change I believe they can, it all depends on the path they choose in life. If you don’t try then how will you know? It is like trying to lose weight, if you get on a diet for a couple weeks and give up then you will never get to where you want to be. Telling people about God could save their life. We never know how others are feeling inside since we train ourselves to put on a show. This can destroy people, and who’s work do you think this is from? The Devil. Yep, that’s right, you can roll your eyes until you fall backwards because it’s the truth. God certainly wouldn’t make us want to end our lives, who’s left? It’s a constant battle with good and evil, and God gives us the free will to choose which path we want to take. What some don’t know about the devil is that he starts messing with us when we are young and waits until we are older or whenever he feels is the right time to make his move, he has nothing but time and strong patience. The mind definitely becomes a battlefield and instead of turning to God for their problems they turn to drugs and alcohol. They turn to what they know. If you are around others who turn to drugs/alcohol when things go wrong in their lives, guess what you will do then. This is why it is so important to bring up our children with God in their lives (like the bible says). I have known so many people who say they do have God in their lives, yet they are constantly angry, depressed, suicidal, into drugs/alcohol, etc. and they don’t read their bibles, obey the 10 commandments or go to church and if they do periodically go to church they believe every word their pastor says without ever opening the bible and researching it themselves.

That’s the wrong way, we need to give up the bad to have the good in our lives.
Truth is, we need to be good role models, we need to stay in our loved one’s lives, even if they push you away, odds are they are depressed and too embarrassed to talk and if you just give up because you think they “don’t care,” then you might’ve lost an opportunity to help. I know we have busy lives but instead of sitting on social media, playing video games or some other useless activity, take the time to call someone and remind them that you love them and/or do something nice for them, send them a healthy gift, put a smile on their face. Even if they don’t answer the phone leave a voicemail, even if they don’t reply with the answer you were expecting doesn’t mean they don’t care. Remember these people are already embarrassed of how their lives turned out and they don’t know how to move forward, they don’t believe they can and they don’t believe they ever will. No matter what damage you have done or think you have done to them in the past make sure you are there for their future, even if you feel like you are bothering them, just do it. You never know how you can impact someone’s life until you try.

• “Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways.” Psalms 128:1
• “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” Psalm 19:8
• “He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.” Proverbs 16:20