For a very long time, God was someone I felt was real, but was miles and miles away; someone who watched over me but loved only from a distance. I never really understood who God was to the earth besides a supposed loving presence who created everything. I wasn't curious or committed because I simply didn't understand it fully. Eventually this grew into a bit of a spiritual crisis and I became so sick of not ever feeling safe or at home wherever I was. That was the moment I finally just threw up my hands and surrendered. So many people believe surrendering to be a bad thing, after all, it is giving up and handing over the power to someone else. In this case, it was the best thing that I could have ever done.
Surrendering to God is the mark of an enormous change in your life. For me, it brought an enormous amount of care for others into my heart and let the unnecessary cares about myself exit. All that was left in me was a heart full of love that was ready to practice selflessness and a brand new, glittering soul that was ready to experience and see the world differently. When I stopped pushing God away and finally accepted his love, I received the answers I thought I would never get and I finally began understanding what my purpose was. I realized the answers that many people look for their whole lives are attainable, and I am here to share what I have learned with you because I want you to experience this joy and freedom as well. Even if you do not consider yourself to be spiritual or religious, these are just as applicable to you as they are to me, just replace love where you see me mention God. These are genuine truths that I have found and have discovered them to be the secrets to happiness and a life full of love. I feel so beyond grateful and I hope to always have the drive in me to want to learn more and to carry this with me wherever I go.
ʚ♡ɞ
1. Things do not matter, relationships do.
Everything that you own or have achieved most likely sparked a momentary happiness and excitement, but as time passes, they all start to lose their shininess. Things in the world are temporary like that. Of course, it is important to have goals because this is what keeps us going and alive, but there comes a time when the fun of buying the trendiest thing or having gone to an Ivy League school wears off and you are left wondering what else there is. The thing that I have found that has never lost its shininess isn't a thing. I'm sure you have heard that the best things in life are free and other clichés such as that, which is a bit unfortunate since those kind of wear off the meaning of them, however it is an enormous truth. My faith has taught me to look beyond my own selfish desires and to look at what lasts for eternity: genuine love, connection and thinking outside of yourself. We find this in the relationships that are meant to last. ♡
Once I really embraced this, I found that I needed nothing else because I felt full and brimming with life. What you give to others, whether it be in words of affirmation, quality time or acts of service, becomes the center of your life. A life of taking and self-centeredness will always be a lonely life and I learned this lesson the hard way.
2. Forgiveness is freedom
I struggled for a very long time with forgiveness and I will admit that sometimes I still do. However, what is extremely important to understand is that whatever you went through by the hand of someone else, was probably not even about you. In fact, I can almost guarantee that it wasn't. If you know that person and their past, you might be able to connect the dots on where it went wrong and how they became bitter or harsh. Maybe they had a rough childhood, or they were bullied or had their heart broken. The fact is, they are hurting and when you are hurting, you do stupid things. There's no such thing as bad people, just bad things that people choose to do. This doesn't excuse their actions and this doesn't mean you have to trust them or stick around, but try to understand and then let go. I promise you will feel a weight lifted from your heart. Holding onto grudges does you more harm than it does to them. You don't have to let a person have that control over you.
3. Your true identity is found through love
You may have heard the saying that you are what you love, and I am a firm believer in this. The more love you hold in your heart, the more you become it and the more you display it to the world. Identity was something I struggled a lot with before I truly came to know God. I placed my identity in how I looked to the world, meaning how I dressed, how I acted, what kind of music I liked and how pretty I was. In other words, I placed my identity in outward things. Lo and behold, I was miserable at this stage in my life. Who would have thought? This is why God is so crucial to who I am now. I had to find God to know love; what it truly was and what it meant. C.S. Lewis once said "The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become -- because he made us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be. . . . It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own." This is such an important quote to me because it perfectly sums up how I changed. At the core, I am still the same me I have always been, but I am the best me that I have ever been. I feel like myself again, but for the first time. That is how important love is.
4. Wisdom is more fulfilling than knowledge
The wisest people I've met advocate that there are tons of different types of smart, success is entirely subjective, and that you are only as happy as you choose to be. ♡
5. The way you view life determines how you react to every situation.
The way you see your life is what shapes it. People have said they see their life like a circus, a minefield, a roller coaster, a puzzle, a symphony, a journey or a dance. Personally, I like to see it as a yo-yo or a carousel, with ups and downs and sometimes just going around and around. By seeing it this way, it helps me build resilience and to understand that in order for things to be good, there has to be some bad. There is song from I Love Melvin that I often think of called "Life Has Its Funny Little Ups And Downs." Here are some of the lyrics:
You rise and fall like a bouncing ball Like a little tensing yo-yo
... For just when things are looking down Things start looking up ☺
These are my most significant lessons, but I find that every day I am still finding new ones even if they are smaller. God has become an enormous presence in my life and I see his work being done everywhere that I go. If I could give everyone that same sense of peace and stillness in their soul, I would do it in a heartbeat. ♡ I hope all of you have had a wonderful weekend and I would love to hear if any of this resonated with you! I love you all so so much.
Hugs,
Katie ♡
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