Add Persistence To Your Key Chain

Persistence

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
:: Thomas Edison

 

You can use persistence in all aspects of life. Persistence is an intangible key that will bring reward while facing challenges in life.

A recent example is water damage I was experiencing in my apartment. I kept checking-in with my landlord and my problem was solved. In such situations, you can’t assume one phone call to your landlord will be enough.

For me, persistence is the yearning to continue until I get a desired result. I closely associate persistence to perseverance and endurance.

Why? It’s continuing to try even while experiencing adversity. Re-read the previous sentence.

When faced with hardship, continue to press on. Will it be easy? No, prepare to work through frustration. Prepare to work through pain. Will it be rewarding? Yes. Prepare to feel success; to find new-found confidence.

Working through hardships in life strengthens your character to face future adversity. Upon overcoming challenges, you’ll feel more confident when presented with future challenges, and you will see reward.

 

Think about what you enjoy to do. Persistence comes in handy for the following activities:

Finding a job – Keep your focus. Follow-up. Maintain a positive attitude. Continue to apply.

Fishing – Keep fishing when the fish stop biting

Hunting – Continue to hunt even if you don’t see the game you’re after

Working out/Sports – When you feel a side cramp coming on, keep running. Play hard the entire game, whether your team is losing or winning.

Graphic/web design – Software/coding can be stubborn, persistence is a way to feel those “aha” moments. Keep trying to bring your vision to life.

See a pattern? Keep and continue are used over again. No challenge, or any word similar to “challenge”, is a ticket to quit.

You see, being presented with a challenge means being presented with an opportunity. You can tell yourself to quit, or continue. Believe in yourself, your ability; and spark that curiosity to always try one more time. Will trying one more time accomplish what you started?

In life you’ll face opposition, difficulties, and failure. And to overcome these obstacles you must keep going. Persistence is key; add it to your keychain.

 

This is the second of a continuing series on discovering your intangible key chain.

Running Into Colors, Faith, and Promise

While on a morning run during the spring of 2011 I saw a rainbow in the clouds and after my run, reflected on this covenant from God.

While looking at a rainbow in the sky, it’s God’s covenant he will never again destroy the world with a flood. (Genesis 9:11-17) With every rainbow, God’s keeping his promise.

There are problems in life; some problems seem like floods. It’s refreshing in such times to remember God keeps his promises. It’s refreshing to see a rainbow in the sky. How many rainbows do you see?

Every time you see a rainbow God’s reassuring you he keeps his promises. Amazing we still see rainbows appear; the first one appeared in Noah’s time, that’s B.C.!

A promise God has made is that we’ll go to heaven by believing in his son; God doesn’t break promises. I am unable to see God, yet am able to see his promises. In fact, every time you see a rainbow, you see God’s promise. God keeps his promises.

“Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds. I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. ” Genesis 9:14-15

Life’s Roller Coasters

It’s awesome to hear God-given talent through song.
While listening to John Denver’s song:

“Looking For Space”, I jotted down the following:

I’m realizing I can relate to lyrics in this song and they help me explain certain feelings in my life.

“Looking for space” helps me reflect on my values, my goals in life and where I see myself in the future. 

Sometimes I wish I could fly away,” I imagine eagles soaring and how they represent freedom. It’s about those times I feel like I need a break from work or facing a new challenge in my life. Fishing also comes to mind and the freedom of exploring God’s creation. 

“When I think that i’m moving, suddenly things stand still. I’m afraid cus I think they always will.” I relate to this line because there’s times problems arise while everything’s going well. Some challenges take longer to overcome so I feel stuck in a rut. Some ruts take more work to get out of than others. Once I’m out it’s rewarding and I am refocused.

“Sometimes I fly like an eagle.” Hearing this inspires me because when God is brought into perspective, I feel refreshed and feel like I’m soaring high like an eagle, suddenly everything’s clear. The big picture is that God wants us to be in heaven with him; we have the gift of eternal life through Jesus.

High points are exhilarating; low points are puzzling. The reality is that life’s a roller coaster. Your faith is a roller coaster. Sometimes it’s strong, other times it’ll seem weak.

Always living in you, God will strengthen your faith and be at your side throughout your life. It will feel like you’re flying on eagle’s wings. Other times you’ll seem to be in a slump and may find yourself in despair. Whatever the case, God is always walking with you, never leaving you. It’s a sweet dream.

St. Paul says, “I am convinced neither angels nor demons can separate you from the love of God.”

God’s love is strong, so strong he was willing to send his only son to die on the cross. Jesus Christ died for all people, humbling himself to live as a human and be tempted, tortured, and mocked; that we may live and have life to the full.

When in despair or feeling like you’re stuck, remember Jesus went through temptation and challenges as you and I do, so he knows exactly how living in this world can be. He promises, surely I will be with you always to the very end of the age. That alone is exhilarating. God keeps his promises.

 

We’re Here Breathing

Time out. Take a deep breathe. Do it again.

Recently, Bill Nye came out to slam creation and exploit his view of things. His take is “We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need engineers that can build stuff and solve problems”. This is true, we need those things and the fact is those literate voters, taxpayers for the future, and engineers to solve problems and build stuff will be living on a planet God created.

Hebrews 11:3 states “By faith we understand the universe was formed at God’s command…” (In fact, read all of Hebrews 11.) Notice, it’s by FAITH. Just as it takes faith to believe in God and the Holy Bible. It takes faith to

Hebrews

believe that the world came about by the big bang, random events, and evolution. And it takes faith to believe the world is billions of years old. (side note: from my christian perspective, the earth could be billions of years old, or it could be thousands. God never said how old the earth is. It remains a mystery to me. Some things we won’t know, we are not God, until we’re in heaven and get to ask God.)

 

Yes, I am offended at Bill’s remarks. I’m going to be because I believe in God with all my heart, my soul, my mind. I am a christian who solves problems, who is a literate voter. Furthermore, evolution is already taught in public schools, creationism is not. Does Nye realize this? So the majority of kids in this world are already being taught evolution, it’s also printed in scientific text books. Nye also needs to realize that those who believe God created the universe and everything in it are scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future, and they can be engineers to solve problems and build stuff. You do not need to believe in the big bang theory to solve problems and build stuff.

Not all science is bad; but science is not God, cannot be God, cannot replace God. There is right and wrong. Science can be wrong, and Science does not have all the answers. God does. And because we, you and I are humans, we are not going to know all the answers in this world, however, there is an answer to who created this world, God. Christians will reject certain scientific beliefs. This is why Christians reject evolution and the big bang theory. It’s why there is a clash between science and religion.

I believe God created the world in which we live, the world I am sitting in today typing this blog post. It’s the world that Bill Nye lives in. The air that Bill Nye is breathing in the video? God created that too. Nye has chosen not to believe in creation, his belief comes from man. Mine is in God, the Father almighty the maker of heaven and earth.

God gave us his Word in the Holy Bible that we may believe in him. We can learn how the world became to be in Genesis. It’s literally how the world became to be. Please don’t make it more complicated, for God’s word says what is means and means what it says. God wants us to know about him and what he has done for us. God keeps his promises and means what he says. As Christians we take God at his Word.

genisis

When It’s Been A While

Whoa! It truly has been a while since my last post. However, “Phew!”, at least it has not been a year.

Since my last post I’ve secured the position I went to school for, through the Lord’s help. In my heart I set a goal to obtain a digital marketing position. Achieving this goal is the most rewarding feeling after one of the toughest challenges I’ve experienced after college. Now, it’s working harder than I have before. I used to think college was hard. It was. But, now I see how much time,(free time), a college student truly has.

Free time, now, is a rewarding feeling in itself. What to do with the free time is a challenge as I feel like I must delve into my career that much more while I am tugged into my passions, (fishing, hunting, snowboarding), to reap the benefits of leisure.

God has blessed me with balance. This natural talent of mine, is now being pushed to the limit by the tasks of life. With the Lord’s help, I feel my balance always improving.

A favorite sayings that inspires me is, “Behind every challenge lies reward.” (I came up with this saying while preparing for the interview question, “Tell me about yourself?”)

What are sayings that have inspired you, and what achievement has stood out to you this past year? Feel free to leave them in the comments.