Difficulties Have an Expiration Date

Today I am writing to everyone, not just kids and families, but for everyone.  Sometimes out of the blue, something creeps into your life, invited or uninvited, to cause problems, challenges, difficulties.  You get up after a great night’s rest, and after an hour or so, you feel down, like a blanket is over your head.  I like to remind myself that trouble has an expiration date.  It will not last, nor can it last.  If you are a person of faith, that’s when faith replaces fear.  Let go of the doubt and put God into place and give it to him.  If you’re not a person of faith, take some time for yourself.  Maybe you had a big day planned, the sun is out, and the sky is a beautiful blue, and you’re ready to go, then suddenly you’re not prepared.  Sit for a while, relax, take a little nap.  But I just got up, you say.  Take one anyway and let your body heal itself.

The current difficulty that you are facing is only temporary.  That is unless you give it more life than it deserves.  So often add on to our problems by thinking about them, by assaulting them with our might, anger, and frustration.  I have found that it only makes a problem grow bigger and gives it more strength and influence in my life.  When we think about something by reliving the past, then we provide it with life.  It can then influence the present and even the immediate future.  In the movie Geostorm, there was a line at the end, “You can’t relive the past; all you can do is face what’s next.”  I love that simple advice because it tells us to neither pull it towards us nor push it away from us.  I say, do neither.  Don’t pull it towards you, and don’t push it away; just let it be.  Eventually, it will be far in the background.

Life here, let alone our difficulties are only temporary, and we need to remember that we can’t get to where we need to go without the struggle.  God, for faith-based folks, isn’t dependent on what you don’t have; he can make up the difference.  Difficulties have an expiration date.  I want to challenge readers to put themselves in neutral when problems arise.  Just let them be, don’t give them energy, and don’t try to push them away.  Realize that all these challenges will be forgotten in a matter of days and certainly after our lifetimes.  No one will know what you said that you shouldn’t have said or the deeds you could have done better; all will be lost.

For a look at Part 3 of this series, see Rich Dr. Rich Patterson (pattersonphd.com)

Read this post of 6 challenges in Life You Most Overcome at 6 Challenges in Life You Must Overcome to Become a Better Person (lifehack.org)

Yours for a Better Life,

Rich