Sarah Sudiacal

 1. Stronger Than Yesterday Life doesn’t get easier, people get stronger. What doesn’t kill us make us stronger. We know life is not easy and we are not always strong. However, we also know that the more problems we overcome, the stronger we become. Because of this, the next challenge seems easier than the last one. We increase our strength through each challenge that we face. Joshua 1:9 Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. 2. Don’t dream alone Don’t be a lone dreamer. Find people that believe in you and make the journey to your dreams worthwhile. We need other people to support our dreams. We need encouragement to continue pursuing our goals in life. Find people that believe in you and in what you want. Most of the people who succeeded in life had people who supported them no matter what. We must find people who will push us closer to our dreams and get rid of people who doubt our abilities. Hebrews 13:6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. 3. Bounce Back Hardships should not make us stop, it should make us tough. Resilience comes from our difficult experiences. It’s our innate ability to bounce back after a mishap. We develop it as we respond positively to unpleasant situations. There are times when we feel cornered and think about giving up but that’s when we should fight harder. We may find it difficult at first, but as we continue to face and overcome difficulties, we’ll discover how we could work our way through them. We must learn to work against the ropes so we could use it to bounce back and throw a harder punch. 2 Timothy 1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 4. Climb Every Mountain You don’t have to move a mountain, climb it. We should not see setbacks as a death sentence. We should not glorify failures and then feel sorry for ourselves because of it. If we look at problems as challenges, then we will be motivated to overcome them. The difficulties we face does not end our journey, they just make us take a different route. They are like mountains that we should climb to get to our destination. We should stop making ourselves miserable by trying to eliminate our problems. We should just find our way around them. It is easier and far more enjoyable to climb a mountain than to move it. Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. 5. First Priority Help yourself before helping others. I won’t forget my first airplane experience because it was when I learned that there are times that you have to put yourself first. The stewardess explained that in case a cabin loses air pressure, we must put our oxygen masks first before helping others. I understood that my mom should put hers on before helping me. During difficult situations, we often put ourselves last. Doing so wears us out and affects our loved ones in the long run. Instead of helping them, we become a burden. Putting ourselves first enables us to help others. Oftentimes, we expect our loved ones to always put us first without thinking about their physical and emotional needs. However, we must understand they have to take care of themselves too, just as we do. Philippians 2:3-4 ESV Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 6. Sweeter Success Our struggle makes our successes sweet. Some days my dreams seem so far, I’d have to use a telescope to see it. But I know that I will not understand success if I haven’t tasted defeat. My favorite poet, Emily Dickinson, puts it this way: “Success is counted sweetest By those who ne'er succeed. To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need.” I will not cherish winning if I never lost. Every failure adds more value to my success. I always remind myself of this when I feel like giving up on my dreams. I make every rejection a reason to persevere even more. I will keep on struggling to make success taste even sweeter. Romans 8:18 (NIV) I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 7. Forgive and Forget Mistakes should be mourned for, forgiven, and then forgotten. Do wish you can go through life, a second time? Thinking that this time, “I’ll make it right”, or “I’ll study for a degree that I want” but then you realize you can’t and feel like a loser. No matter how hard we wish for it, we cannot undo the things we’ve done. We should learn to let go of what happened in the past so we could move forward. I had a hard time forgiving myself before but then I realized that I am the only person keeping myself from moving on. We all have our unique processes in dealing with our mistakes. But ultimately, we have to deal with it once and for all. Philippians 3:13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead 8. Get To The Good Part Don’t stop reading when you are in a bad chapter, keep reading until you get to the good one. Every time I read a novel, I struggle through to read the parts where it seems hopeless. It makes me want to pick another book and just quit reading the first one. But then a friend told me that I should read on until I get to the part where everything’s good again. Most of the time we stop pursuing our goals when we face hardship and failure. We must understand that the road to success isn’t an easy one. If we give up every time we come across a difficult situation, we will never accomplish anything. Ecclesiastes 7:14 When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future. 9. Just Go With It There is no rehearsal for life, learn to improvise. Life happens in one continuous shot. We cannot have a picture perfect life and we cannot always be at our best. We make mistakes and the best we can do is not to repeat them. We may think that we are not ready for certain things. However, we cannot prepare for what we don’t know. So whether you’re in a new job, transferring to a new home, or welcoming a new phase in life, learn to improvise. Proverbs 16:33 We may throw the dice, but the LORD determines how they fall. 10. Temporary Troubles To every problem you encounter, say “This Too Shall Pass”. We say these words to a friend who is in a depressing situation, sometimes we also say this to ourselves. Whatever you’re going through, no matter how bad your situation is, it will surely end. We could rest on the hope that troubles are only temporary. We must always look forward to the good days while going through the tough times. 2 Corinthians 4: 17-18 “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever. So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” 11. Love in Action Love should not just be expressed in words, it must be seen in action. We often want to hear our significant others tell us how they love us, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It just so happens that love isn’t always said, it is also done. People, especially men, have different ways of showing their love to us. We might miss the love expressed in waiting for us to get dressed, giving us foot massages, making our morning coffees and much more. Let’s appreciate the love we receive in action and return the favor. When we realize that love is expressed in a lot of ways, we discover more ways to give and receive it. 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 12. Hope Is Necessary Never run out of hope, it is one of life’s essentials. Without hope, we will not look forward to tomorrow. Without it, we wouldn’t want to get up after a fall or try again. We need it as much as we need the air we breathe because life can be very unpredictable. We’ll never know what each day will bring but as long as we have hope we’ll get through it. Hope is a must-have in our lives, never live a day without it. Job 11:18 You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety. 13. Breathe If the oxygen in your lungs doesn’t give you a reason to be happy, I don’t know what will. We underappreciate the best things in life. We always look for something we do not have. We search for reasons to keep on living but we never really took the time to be grateful for just breathing. Being alive makes up for everything that doesn’t go our way. We should relish the fact that we can enjoy life with the ones we love and do things that we love despite our circumstances. We could enjoy the simple pleasures of looking at the stars and reading our favorite book. We have to be alive to do all the things that make us happy. Proverbs 15:13 A glad heart makes a happy face; a broken heart crushes the spirit. 14. Look at the bright side Reconfigure your senses to focus on the good things. We have the tendency to focus on the things we worry about. We look at the negative side of things and miss the good things that come our way. When we train ourselves to see the good in everything, our days become brighter and our burdens become lighter. We do not deny the importance of dealing with difficulties in life; we just choose to see the simple joys that come with it. Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 15. Follow Your Heart Do the things you’ll be happy to regret. We don’t always have foolproof decisions. But when we do it for something we love, it is well worth it. We always feel our hearts racing at the thought of pursuing our dreams but we are also paralyzed by the thought of failure. We must not be afraid to do the things we love. In the end, we will only regret the things we didn’t do not the things we did. If all else fails, we can consider the attempt as its own reward. The fact that we conquered our fear and pursued what we want is a prize in itself. Ecclesiastes 11:9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. 16. Bring Out The Best In You Diamonds are made under a lot of pressure. In the same way, our sufferings bring out the best in our character. We know that strong people are made under tough times and they will not be who they are if not for the things they’ve been through. Let the pressure transform you and refine your character. We are strengthened by things we overcome. We should tackle our problems head on and come out better than we were before. Romans 5:3-6 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 17. Timeless Hope doesn’t grow old. It stands the test of time and doesn’t go out of style. We can’t deny the fact that good appearance is very important. Social media compels us to be at our best every time. Although it’s not bad to look good, we must also take time to invest in our character. It’s what will separate us from the rest in the long run. Trends come and go but hope is timeless. Hope enables us to be immovable even in moments of defeat and joyful even in times of trouble. We shouldn’t be influenced by what’s going on around us but by what is in us. We should be cautious about the things that we let into our minds and hearts. Let’s always choose things that last. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal 18. Nothing Is Impossible Faith helps us accomplish things that we could only dream of. We always ask for things that are possible. We just plan to do things that are within our abilities. We don’t even dare to think about doing great things because it seems impossible. If we let our limits dictate our actions we will never go out of our comfort zone. Do things that seem impossible. Believe that you can make it happen. Because for a person who has faith, nothing is impossible. Ephesians 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us. 19. Pass It On Life teaches us a lesson so we could pass it on. We often wonder why we have to go through difficulties in life. Why should we experience being jobless or broke or defeated? The answer is in the way we deal with those problems. We go through difficult situations for our sake and also for others. Sufferings teach us a thousand things that comfort can never do. We, in turn, share this experiences with others so they could learn through us. We could also comfort them with the thought that they could also triumph over it like we did. 2 Corinthians 1:4-5 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. 20. Wait For It Practice patience because good things take time. Time is the greatest investment that anyone can give because it’s priceless. No one can give it back and it is spent whether you like it or not. We pursue a lot of things in life. We cultivate relationships, we promote a cause, and we advance our career. These things do not flourish overnight so we must not wear ourselves out just because we cannot see immediate results. We must have faith in what we do and hope for what we aim for. We must realize that life isn’t a race, it’s a marathon. It’s not about who gets there first. It’s about who stays the longest. Lamentations 3:24-25 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.