So yesterday my bother wrote a wonderful article about our weaknesses as human beings and how it is a natural part of life, moreover, a divine preset.  And this inherent weakness that has been predetermined for a reason.  The reason being that God gave it to us to learn from and build upon. It gives us the opportunity to experience life in such a way that gives us everything that we need to become the best version of ourselves, it only benefits us and the world in the long run. The article was beautifully articulated. If you haven’t read it yet, give it a read.

Anyway the reason I bring this up is because earlier this week, I chose a topic to write about today and to my surprise it is pretty much the same idea.  My version isn’t so much in the divine sense, and what I mean by that is that I wanted to write about the more “now” sense of it.  A more day-to-day look at what it is that we can do to overcome our struggles.

Growing up I always looked at things in a different light.  I couldn’t see past the world that was right in front of me.  The scope of my world was about becoming tough, or being prideful.  I got really good at hiding my emotions and shielding myself from other people’s emotions, not just from other people, but – even more destructive, myself. I was very hard!  I got this way from going through hard things in my life, I didn’t realize at the time that these things were very necessary.  Necessary, in order for me to become who I am becoming.  I still have lot’s of things that I need to work on and sometimes it feels like I will never be able to overcome myself. And to this day I don’t do really good with expressing myself, let alone articulate my feelings. But I’m aware now.  And more important, I see why theses things happen.  I have come to realize now, things like; I don’t have to be ashamed of my mistakes or failures, honor and respect are more important than any level of toughness, pride and arrogance just make me hard.  The reason it’s important to embrace our weaknesses and our failures, the things that make us soft is because when we are soft we become moldable.  If we take our experiences and use them to shape our mold with intent and focus it can become something wonderful.

We can be easily molded into something beautiful when we are soft, flexible and broken in good ways. Pride and arrogance are harder to shape.

Rob Bell