Listen Up!

I have decided to post this blog for everyone and anyone who is willing to read it with an open mind. Not everyone can deal with being told they are wrong, but everyone is wrong at some point in their life. If you have the tendencies to act like this then I'm sorry to say you might be wrong.

Some people..in fact a select few..go through certain trials that are hard. Hard being an insufficient term to describe some of these trials that seem unbearable. Eventually those trials pass and the person realizes the good in those trials. They learn from them, are made stronger by them, and eventually become thankful for them.

However, at the time, these trials are horrible experiences that bring many tears, regrets, and even hateful feelings. I am nnot a troubled soul, but I have experienced a few "tragedies". I have grown from them and they are in my past. They have made me the person I am today and I have learned many lessons from them. I am even grateful to have learned those lessons in my life. After going through what I've gone through I feel like I can be a better shoulder to cry on for the people around me that have faced the same hardships. And I hope that I can be an example to my children so they will not make the same mistake.

Even though I have made it out alive, there was a time when I didn't think I would. A time when I cried a lot and it literally hurt to be dealing with everything. I have many friends and like any human I tried to rely on them to comfort me. A few of my best friends found the right words to say that gave me the extra strength I needed to pull through. But, the majority of the people around me gave me the "cookie cutter" answer: "Everything will be ok. Just have faith and pray about it. You don't need to be upset, you just need to have faith."

After surviving my short comings I would like to throw something out there. FAITH and FEELINGS are not the same, however they seem to often be confused for the same thing. People often think that when something bad happens to you all you have to do is pray about it and then everything will be ok. It is true that our faith and prayer help us to overcome our obstacles. However, just because we have faith in Heavenly Father doesn't mean we have to forgo our feelings. We are allowed to feel. We are allowed to be sad when something bad happens to us. We are allowed to hurt. When something bad happens we are allowed to let ourselves think for a brief moment that everything sucks and it isn't fair.

If we weren't allowed to feel any of these things, Heavenly Father wouldn't have given us the ability to feel. But we were given that ability. I am not saying that when something bad happens you should slump around with a depressed expression on your face and an "I hate this world" attitude for the rest of your life. All I'm saying is you can have faith: faith that everything will be ok, faith that this is happening for a reason, faith in Heavenly Father, yes you can have all the faith in the world, and it is STILL OK for you to be upset. It is OK to cry and be angry and hate what is happening to you.

I am here to say to you that if anyone tries to tell you to brush off your feelings and just pray about it you can tell them to shove off.

And if you are one of the ones who likes to use the "cookie cutter answer" let me just say that even if you do believe no one should be sad and they should just have faith there will come a day when you will want to be sad and when you go looking for some sympathy just remember you "cookie cutter answer", suck it up, and go pray.

*Disclaimer*
I don't mean to be rude or offend anyone, I am just opening the eyes of the naive.