"What do You Love?"

(Before Writing)  

            Last Week I found myself sad. I wasn’t exactly sure why, but there were so many negative thoughts surrounding me. I was tired of being upset for unjustifiable reasons. My recurring worries and issues were becoming too much for me to hold. So I turned to God and asked what do I do? My mind instinctively went to writing. I have had this one blog post idea for a while where I would write about how a terrible historical event could have been prevented, through faith and peace with God (I will write about it eventually). However, negative and angry thoughts would be the basis of that post, which would be counterproductive to the problem at hand. So I was stuck. “God, what do I do?” Well he answered my question. The best way to defeat negativity is to battle it with positivity. Many of my blog posts have been… I don’t know… not super positive and joyful. Do I regret writing them? Absolutely not. It is just time for a change. Asking God questions during difficult times is an action most religious people do, and I do not escape this generalization. “God, what do I do?” God answered my desperate call for help. However, he didn’t answer it the traditional way. He didn’t give me a statement, order, or suggestion that would clarify my confusion. He answered me with another question. “What do you love?”

**Here is where I would have put my list of everything I love. I started every sentence with, “I love…” For example, “I love God.” I would then elaborate on what exactly it is I love about God. I also wrote about nature, objects, experiences, and people I love. 

(After Writing) 

            Wow. Just Wow. I only generalized what I love, and I wrote more than I ever could imagine. We are talking around 3,000 words. God has taught me an immense amount from this love filled writing process. I originally thought I could put everything I wrote in one blog post. I understand now that it is simply too long. So I am going to break up what I have written in to smaller sections, and I will post each section at different periods of time. Okay moving on. Have you ever been told to “count your blessings”? I sure have… plenty of times! Whenever I heard the suggestion I would think, “Yeah that is a good idea. Okay thank you God for everything you have blessed me with.” I made an ignorant and unemotional statement of gratitude, and consequently I did not really understand the extent of my appreciation. Actually counting my blessings has healed my blindness to the variety of love I have to be grateful for. I now feel happier and more content with my life.  There is so much to cherish in the world, and I thank God that I can clearly see the beauty of my existence. I have also learned how exactly what we love impacts our lives. Does it shape who we are? Well what we love definitely influences who we are, however, what we hate does to. What aggravates us. What we want to change. What makes us sad. They are all ingredients in the recipe for “Who We Are”.  For instance, I wrote, “I love that I live in a place where I can eat food for pleasure.” I did not say, “I hate that there is hunger in this world.” Both sides of the story influence who I am. So what does only love do for us? What does love do that is uniquely loves? After writing what I love, I began to imagine my life without my blessings. Imagine my life without my sources of happiness, without my friends, without my hobbies, without my family, and without my faith in God. I would live a life full of anger, disappointment, mental instability, and misery. It would be full of nothing I value. Nothing of worth. What we love makes our lives valuable. Our blessings make our lives worth living. When we look at the world and see the injustices we hate, the wrong we want to make right, and the hurt we want to heal, we can look back towards our blessing and say, “Hey this life isn’t so bad.” Writing what I love has truly been too great a gift from God not to share. I HIGHLY suggest taking the time to write about everything you love. I know that I have many blessings, but I know everyone else does too. Take the time to focus on the positive side of life. The side that makes life worth living.