Facing Pressure

No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change.

- Barbara de Angelis
      

 Have you ever had anyone try to tell you how to be happy?  The Bible tells us that no one knows the spirit of a man except that man and God, yet we are surrounded by others who feel they have deduced your nature, our very thought processes because one does not respond as they think one should.  I have been dealing with such an issue for a great part of my life.  I choose to be secluded for the most part; away from business and gossip. I shun large, rowdy crowds for they have the tentancy to become obnoxious and beligerant.  My idea of a good Friday night is either watching a good video, sitting on my porch with a cold drink, going on a walk thru the neighborhood with the wife and our son, or just simply chilling in the comfort of my home.  My wife and I both vowed to be more sociable this year but being sociable often comes with a cost and I do not like to be inconvenienced.  Let's face it; not all people who approach your doorstep do so in peace and goodwill and it is our duty, as men, (and women, if you are the head of your house), to be ever vigilant concerning your kingdom.  The Reverend Robert Collier said; "Experience teaches that we need to be protected more from our fears and wrong thoughts, than from so-called evil influences external to ourselves.  We need not suffer for another man's wrong, for another man's greed, dishonesty, avarice or self ambition. But if we hug to ourselves the fear that we do have to so suffer and we take it into our thought and allow it to disturb us, then we only punish ourselves.  We are free to reject every suggestion of discord, and to be governed harmoniously, in spite of what anything or anybody may try to do to us." (The Secret of The Ages). 

I awaken each day a free man.  I am free as I go to and fro about my daily business.  And at night when I lay down my head I smile and thank the Lord because in spite of all things, I am still free.  My brother, Alfred, once told me years ago that there will always be those who speak evil of you and it is primarily due to jealously.  "But I don't have anything that anyone would want", I replied.  He looked into my eyes and said, "You're happy, you are successful, you do right by others and you have people who love you. Well, that is all the reason some folks need to hate you."  I love my life and I would not trade it for anything.

Have a blessed day.
Dennis