complicated love simply fixed

i'm a sixteen year old girl. so guess what a major problem of mine was/is? boys! this past summer there was a boy i liked..who liked me too! problem was, i wasn't aloud to date, no matter how amazing the guy was. that caused alot of ...stuff to happen in my life. but in the end, we knew we had to end it because of my parents. it was so sweet but seemed way too short. i missed him for the longest time..i still do. but i can't dwell on that, and i can't find my self esteem in him. so my first thing i've learned....

"Fill your heart with God, and no sadness will be too much to bare"

many people are depressed. It might be medically diagnosed as depression, or not, but most people are depressed in one form or the other; especially teenagers. Now, I know emotions are natural things, and it’s good and healthy to be sad sometimes. But when I’m talking about people being depressed, I’m talking about people whose lifestyle is sadness. They have a pessimistic view of their life; they’re not satisfied with it. It’s not good enough.. seems like it never will be

We live in a world tainted by sin; and there’s no way we can live a perfect life. It’s a true statement, but by many, is taken the wrong way. Since there’s no way for us to be perfect, a lot of people decide they should live their lives of sin, without any regrets. Now, it’s not a sin to be sad, or to be depressed for a while, but it most certainly can lead to sin. Why? Because honestly, when you come down to it, most prolonged sadness exists because peoplefill their hearts with the wrong things. People build their self-esteem not upon their relationship with the Lord, but rather, things of this world. When your heart is in the hands of anything but God, it will lead to its own destruction

If you think about it, if you find your self-esteem in God, filling you heart with Him, how long could something possibly make you sad? Your boyfriend/girlfriend breaks up with you. That hurts, but if you put your self-esteem in the Lord, He’ll be your peace, and you can get over it. If your self-esteem is in that person, and whether they love you or not, you’ll find no peace. It’s a very true statement that most teenagers find their self esteem in having a relationship. (I’m gonna have to call out girls especially on this.) They feel as though they need the respect of a boy they like to feel good about themselves. And that’s it at best, many just crave attention, or what they think might be love. Just this week on Facebook a friend of mine made her status something like “I’m so depressed, I’m done hiding it. I’m going to be in bed all day and cry. I wish this could end.” This is not made up. The next day, a boy she liked asked her out. She said yes and was suddenly in a relationship. Her status today was “Out with (boyfriend), my life is perfect <3” Really? It’s all better now, because she has a boyfriend. She sounded suicidal yesterday. That’s where she finds her self-esteem. I wonder where it will go when they break up….

The Bible says if you put your hope in the Lord, He will renew your strength. So no matter how hard anything is in life,God will help you if He’s your focus. This world will let you down. You can’t put your trust in anything, or anyone. Your parents make mistakes. Your closest friends will fail you too. That seems depressing. You can’t count on anyone….but guess who you can count on? Always? I, like many, used to base my happiness on some of theshallowest things. It always led to pain, and that’s how God showed Himself to me. I learned that if you trust in the Lord, He will never ever let you down. I went through hurt, pure hurt, and I’d just pray and pray for God to take it away. But He didn’t. He used it to show me that I need Him, and I need to only trust in Him. I learned up close that He absolutely loved me, and it wasmore than enough. I didn’t need the approval of my peers, or anyone in my life. Just God. I still go through times when I want this pain to completely go away, but, even though it sounds cliché, God’s using this pain tomake me stronger. And I can’t wait to see the whole picture of what He’s teaching me.

Trials will come; terrors will come; sickness will come; health will come, happiness will come,and even love will come into your life. With God, you’ll have all you need for the good times and the bad times. You can laugh at the days to come . Fill your heart with God, find your self-esteem in Him, and no sadness will be too devastating to bare. You will walk through fire, but come outunburned. You will struggle, but you will get through. Your heart will break, butGod’s love will restore it Just put Him first, and you’ll have a life as close to perfect as it gets, no matter what your earthly circumstances are.

thanks for reading,

Lauren