8 Things to Tell Yourself When Life is Hard

I wanted to take a minute to write down some truths that I have been speaking into my heart and mind recently. I know myself and I know that I need to be filling my mind with positive thoughts otherwise I would not be a productive or pleasant human. I also don’t want to waste a trial because I know it’s God’s way of making me more like Jesus. So here are 8 simple truths that I recite to myself daily to keep me focused on the positive things in life even though all around me feels like chaos.

Hard is not bad, it’s just hard

Just because you are going through a hard season in life does not make what is happening to you a bad thing. It’s a hard season and not a waste of time. Sometimes it’s the hard times in life where God gets a hold of your heart in a way that you would not have responded to before.

I first heard this from my pastor as he was preaching through the book of Job. During that sermon series he was always saying that he wanted us to know how to suffer well. Because he said if you haven’t had hard times in your life you just hadn’t lived long enough. And when he said that in 2010 he was right.

This truth alone has gotten me through so many nights when I would cry myself to sleep because my situation was so hard I didn’t think I could bear it much longer. But that doesn’t mean life has to be bad. My life is pretty good when you put things into perspective. Just because you are going through a hard time does not mean that what you are suffering through is a bad thing; just a conduit to the lesson that God is trying to teach you. It may be something that you will endure for a long time or not, but it’s all in Gods timing and He knows best.

If is wasn’t this is would be something else

I first heard this from one of my favorite movies and for whatever reason it stuck with me. If what you are struggling though were not in your life that it would be a different problem. Not to say that we are all doomed to have problems in life and that we can’t be without struggles. But I like this because it shows that no matter who we are we all have something in our lives that we are struggling through, small though it may be.

I like to think of it as accepting, not rejecting, what is happing at the moment instead of trying to wish or imagine a different outcome. Almost having the mindset that if this was not my struggle than it would be another. No matter what it is God will use it all.

The only way through it is to get through it

There is no point in wishing you didn’t have problems or that they would go away. Learning to accept things as they are and not as you would want them to be is a healthy outlook. So instead of avoiding the problem, or trying to find a short cut, or pretending that it’s not there, you just have to get through it.

This too shall pass

The age-old adage that is monogramed across coffee cups and t-shirts a like. But it’s still true. This will pass. There will be an end to this struggle; it will not go on forever. I am reminded of the verse that says, “But take heart, because I have overcome the world." Meaning that the hardships and struggles we face in this life will pass when He returns and makes all things right again. Ultimately God has defeated death and one day there will be no pain and no tears. Even if suffering in this present life is not alleviated there will be a day when all pain and sin and death will be destroyed.

It won’t always be like this

This is what I would say to Jordan when I wanted him to dream again. We would talk about how in the future things would be different and he would be healthy and have a strong body and be able to work and he would one day be a great dad with a great story to tell. I think just reminding your heart that there will be a time when life will be better and it won’t be like this is a necessary perspective to have. Otherwise we would lose hope. Even if we don’t know when that time will come, it will be better one day.

Everything is going to be ok

This is what I would tell Jordan when I didn’t know what else to say because I was scared, unsure and had no words. I would tell him that everything is going to be ok because I knew that some day it would be. No matter what, through hospital stays and painful nights and uncertainty, everything will be ok.

Just keep doing what you know is right

I would remind myself and Jordan of this simple thought when it seemed like life was unfair and that we were doomed to struggle and we were tempted to complain. I would always tell myself to just keep doing what I knew was right. Weather that’s going to church on Sunday, or serving your spouse, or being honest at work, or helping people when you can, or giving when you can, or being a responsible adult. It can be tempting to take short cuts in life or take the easy way out when life is hard but it never pays off. Just keep doing what you know is right.

Just do it

This is what I would tell myself when I needed to clean my house or tackle bills or go grocery shopping. It’s been the only reason that my house is relatively organized and clean and things are done on time because I would tell myself to just do it.

Telling myself these 8 things over and over again, day in and day out, has given me the attitude and outlook with which I deal with our present circumstances. By surrounding myself with positive people, books, articles, blogs, and music I force myself to focus on the good. This is the only reason that I attribute to staying sane these past few months. It’s been hard but it’s not been bad. If it wasn’t this it would be something else. I am doing my best to just do it and get though it. I know this will pass and that everything will be ok. One day God will make everything right and new.

When it rains it pours

I never really felt the weight of that saying until these last few weeks. After Jordan came home from the hospital it felt like life would not relent; one set back, surprise, or obstacle would present itself in the form of an unexpected tax bill or a sensitive dog with worms or a back injury or a cracked denture. It felt as though we were always destined to struggle in life.

It felt as though we were always going to be living in this perpetual state of never having enough. I was scared to even look at our financial situation because I knew the outlook would be bleak. It wasn’t until I actually sat down and filled out the budget forms that I realized we had enough for what we needed. Enough for the basics to survive, enough for another day. Just enough. That’s all we really need in life right? What we need. God truly does provide and knows what we truly need.

I didn’t realize how much my circumstances were stressing me out until I went to get my eyes checked. For the past month I have had a twitch in my left eye in addition to it being itchy and irritated. After the doctor examined my eyes and looked at large pictures of my eyeballs he informed me that everything looked really good and healthy. “Then why is my eye twitching?” I asked. Simply put he said that your eyes will twitch as an indication that the body is under stress. He asked if I had frequent headaches, migraines, sensitivity to loud sounds, and seeing specks or “floaters” in my vision. I answered yes to all of these questions and he affirmed that those are all indicators of stress.

I needed to chill out because my body was reacting to the mountains of stress that I was putting on it everyday since Jordan first went to the hospital. After this alarming realization that I was causing stress on myself and thereby my body, I decided to just let it go. Let go of trying to do everything myself, let go of my desire to control the situation, let go of my wants. There is really only so much you can do in a day and worrying or stressing about what you can't control is not going to help. Of course I know this to be true but I was still allowing myself to let it affect me. What is life without the hardships that make the good moments that much sweeter?

Here’s to giving God your problems and doing your best to make it through life the best we know how. Below is a song that has become my theme song for life. Take a listen.

“Everything can change when you make it His, He wants to carry it. 
Care free in the care of God when you let it go, 
You’ll find that He is enough, you will never leave His love. 
You don’t walk alone."