Happiness

We often attribute our happiness to things around us. We like the way someone makes me feel. If somebody doesn't notice something we changed we get bent out of shape. We look to external things to bring us happiness and joy. A major place people try to fulfill their personal happiness is in romantic relationships. When I lived in Columbus I though I knew what was up. I find as I mature that I was so clueless to the dynamics of a relationship and had a bunch of false expectations. One was that the other person would make me happy. Then after that God didn't let me have relationships because I had to deal with my own heart and issues i swept under the rug. One of the lessons I learned (the hard way) is that no body else is responsible for my happiness. A real relationship will be tested and you can't depend on anyone else to keep you happy or motivated during the "hard" times. You have to find the strength from God and choose no matter what I will be happy. I will love despite. (We act like we don't do things that irritate and annoy. We all have things that need work). The problem (especially mine in the past) was that we focused on ourselves instead of letting the way God says we should approach thing take precedence. Love is patient, kind, does not envy and so on (Check 1 Cor. 13). We need to love Him and be so close to Him that we learn to love others. Our relationship will also teach us how to express our love properly. (This lesson I am personally learning now.) Intimacy removes the fear of the unknown. Fear is due to us focusing on our own shortcomings, insecurity and possibility of rejection. I learned that the seed of rejection doesn't like to go away easy and tries to hinder and destroy what God wants. We must let God deal with those things (surgery gets messy) and be free to have healthy and happy relationships.

-Shamik