Difficult Times? Keep Your Faith
Read the newspaper or turn on the news and you may experience frustration, disbelief and depression. You could also be facing problems at work, your teenager may be rebellious and money might be tight. It’s enough to make anyone who is spiritual or religious doubt their faith. Don’t despair; keeping your faith during difficult times is exactly what you need to be able to hang on.
It doesn’t matter what religious background you have – Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Pagan or something else entirely – faith in someone higher than yourself can give you strength when times are tough. Knowing there is someone who is in control despite the chaos can make the difficult times easier to bear.
Don’t belittle yourself if you’re beginning to have doubts. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t look around and have your faith shaken a bit. However, no matter how much you may have doubts, you can rest assured that your faith can help you through hard times.
Take care of yourself when things seem bleak. Get plenty of rest, exercise and eat as healthy a diet as possible. Spend some time in prayer or meditation. If you’re taking care of your physical needs you’ll feel better emotionally and spiritually.
Try to focus on the positive things in life rather than all the negativity around you. Don’t dwell on mistakes of the past. Look forward to tomorrow and make plans to try to change things for the better.
No matter how much you think you can handle whatever life throws at you on your own, don’t act like the Lone Ranger. Ask for help either in prayer or from people in your life. Reaching out to others may make you feel weak, but that’s alright. Sometimes you need the strength of others to help you through difficult times.
Begin a gratitude journal. Even though things may not be going well for you, purposefully focusing on being grateful can make a huge difference in how you feel. By looking for the good in things you’ll be better positioned to come out of the difficult times quicker.
One piece of advice that would be helpful is to spend 20% of your time trying to figure out the problem and what you can do about it. The rest of the time, focus on things which are going right. If you can do that, the problems won’t seem so bad.
Keeping your faith during difficult times isn’t always easy but it is necessary. It has been said “Each new day is a gift, that’s why it’s called the present.” Do your best to make today better than yesterday. Leave yourself open for new opportunities and seek to help others. By not focusing on the problems of each day you’re well on your way to overcoming and rising above them.
