... how experiences shape life

When I was growing up, I knew a family of four: parents, one son, one daughter. I was best friends with the son. The son was the third generation, taking the name of his father, as his father did his father. So, he had the "III" attached to his name.

He was meant to be the only child. His parent threw all of their attention on him. He got the best of everything he wanted. Some years later, a daughter was born, an "accident". The son continued to prosper and grow in good looks and ego. After high school, he talked his way into a well-paying job and was on a fast track to a successful career.

The daughter didn't fare so well. She was mostly ignored by her parents and wasn't as successful.

In time, the son married a nice girl. They had one boy. The son had created companies, and was very wealthy. When the son turned 18, the wife simply walked away. No words, no explanation, just walked out the door, not coming back.

He had spent so much time building material success, that he forgot about his personal success, and his spiritual success. How sad.

The daughter still lives in the area where she grew up. She is successful in other ways, friends and her ministry, serving Jehovah. But, she has little to no contact with her family. Who could blame her?

Experiences we have in live shape who we are. Good or bad, they shape up. They develop our thinking, our feelings, our emotions, the way we handle stress. Sometimes they contain scars that remain for a lifetime, until someone truly loving and discerning can see and truly help the person to feel "normal".

The experiences I have had have done the same. I use my experiences to demonstrate why I believe what I believe, why I think the way I do, and why I feel the way I feel. I can state them matter-of-factly, acknowleging that they happened, and determine the lessons from them and explain it to others, so that those who have had similar experiences may know: they're not alone, and, there's happiness to be found, somehow.

Somtimes, my experiences leave me angry and bitter, as a "why should this have happened to a nice guy like me?" and I rant. That's what happened the other day.

I began a blog post about value. The values we place on one another, how we automatically place a value based on what we see of a person, but not on how we know that person. The value can increase if we learn more and grow in appreciation and love, or it can decrese based on experiences with that person, if we experience disappointment from something that they had done.

I thought about my experiences and realized some have looked at me and thought, "Well, this guy's deaf, half blind, and looks pretty sorrowful, with little to no potential to be anything more", and stuck an "As-is" price tag on me. Whatever efforts I made to increase my value seemed to go unnoticed. It left me feeling bitter, and I expressed in in my blog draft. I could recall one time that someone really discerned what I needed and helped me.

I was transferred from a hard-of-hearing school to one that was full hearing. I was the only kid with a hearing aid, and this got some ridicule from the other kids. In my fourth grade class, I was flunking the spelling tests because with all the nose, I couldn't hear the teacher say the words we had to spell. She, discerning that I was a very smart kid, could do well in her class, needed help, took time out of her break, to go with me during recess, and we would go out on the field, and sit cross-legged facing each other. She would then give me the spelling test, so I ended up doing well in her class, getting excellent grades.

Now, I wished more people were like her, willing to sacrifice a little to give me a boost, but we're all imperfect and we forget to do the simple things that mean so much to others. So, what do I do now in my old age?

When I read Revelation 21: 4, it says:

And he [Jehovah God] will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.

Outcry and pain will be gone, forgotten! Like when you ride a bike and fall, and your knee is skinned, the wound goes away. Imagine that!

We ;have a lot of baggage in our life. We carry it around, as trophies and burdens. But, God promises to get rid of our baggage and make it disappear. It won't even come to mind for us to remember, "Yeah, that's how I used to feel." That hope is worth holding onto, for a lot of reasons. It is that hope that keeps us enduring, and endure we must, as we continue to have experiences in this world, and suffer pain, and bitterness and disappointments and resentment.

So, I deleted that blog post. I leave it with Jehovah, who will judge righteoudly and try to stay positive and express upbuilding, positive thoughts for the people that read my posts.

Stay safe!