I love life. I love people. I love my family. Love sure makes all things easier. But here is what I often think about: “Why does life seem so hard? Why do we, so many times, find ourselves struggling? Our kids struggling? Why do we hurt and why do we hurt others? Why does it seem like there are always people who seem to have hard times and others seem never to have a care in the world?” Well, if I could answer all those questions I would never have to worry about being idle or about wealth. But let me suggest a few things.
 
First, living life in harmony with God makes life a lot easier.  Our struggle comes with Satan, not God. Satan invades and inserts himself into our lives. He stimulates our desire for the flesh and this world. A man or woman commit sexual immorality. A child struggles with self-esteem. A person struggles with depression. I certainly do not mean to oversimplify everything, but when I am in harmony with God, living sexually pure is not a problem. Self-esteem is not an issue because I am defined by God, not others. And depression goes away because I am comforted by the Comforter. Living life in harmony with God makes life easier and more enjoyable for everyone. Let’s quit the struggle with the flesh. Let Him dwell in our hearts. Let Him have control. Let Him set our values and what is important.
 
Second, we are created to live in harmony with ourselves. Heart, soul, and mind are meant to be harmony with each other. When we are out of alignment in our heart, soul, and mind we are in conflict with ourselves. That is why the Lord told us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, and mind. If one of the three is distracted or pulling against the other two, there is internal conflict. Again, could that be one reason we find ourselves fighting ourselves and fighting others? A child fights against his or her parents. Why? Because heart, soul, and mind are not in harmony. Their heart, soul, or mind wants to pull against the guidance and selfless interest of the parents. In short, they are selfish and do not see their own internal divisiveness. That is true of marriages as well. The “two shall become one flesh,” but their hearts, souls, and minds are divided.  They have not become one. Self-will rules, not harmony of heart, soul, and mind.  Satan knows he can destroy us if we can create internal conflict. If he can just influence or lead one part of who we are away, there is no peace.
 
Third, life is really simplified when we realize we are not perfect and we stop expecting perfection out of others.  That is not an excuse for failure. Again, when we live in harmony with God and ourselves we will try with all of our heart, soul, and mind to please Him. But, having said that, no one is perfect. Brother Robert Turner said, “If you expect perfection or nothing out of people you will get nothing.” So take a breath. I am not always going to get my way. Others will not always do a particular thing the way I like. In the larger scheme of things, does it really matter? Give people a break. Give yourself a break. Quit huffing and puffing about how others don’t do it like I want “it” done. And who is to say my way is perfect? Until I am perfect I cannot expect perfection out of others.

And oh, by the way, the only one to ever live a sinless life does not expect perfection out of us either.
 
Rickie