Day 17 - Giving hope

The hardest part of watching people I love struggle, is that I want to give them hope. I want to gently set sail and deliver it to them while they are sleeping. I want to slip it in their pocket the next time I see them. I want them to be happy. I want them to see their future in a different light. I want them to stop hurting themselves. I want them to have the ability to be joyful in all circumstances. But I can't, I can't give it to them. I can't set it upon them. I can't make them have hope. Hope comes from within you. It comes from your heart. It comes from trust in God or from whatever faith you may have. I cannot do any of that for someone else. But I want to so badly.

How do we give people hope? We live it. We have it in our own lives. Somehow, we believe in it in all circumstances. We speak gently about it, we share our life, and we let it shine from within us. Even when a chapter of our life does not end the way we wish, we show others that we understand that God and life are not about giving us what we want, no matter how much we are hurting. Instead, we move forward with hope in our hearts, transparent for everyone to see. We find hope in something and we hold on to it. Just like a life of faith, we live a life of hope, hopeful that somehow it will change someone else too.

So can you see how important it is to bring hope into your life? Not just for you, but also for your children, the people around you, circumstances in the future. How important it is to talk about it and to be honest about it. It doesn't mean that you won't have times where hope fades, or that you can never be devastated. It just means that it lies within you, forever. It means that it's a genuine belief that cannot be faked or exhausted. It's not a blind hope, where you just talk about it, it's the hope that you hold onto because you know that God has plans for your life. That God is trustworthy. That you cannot see the bigger picture, but you know that it is there. That life is not about walking around aimlessly, hoping that things work out for you. Hope is the assurance that nothing is in vain and that there are so many things to look forward to, if you just open your eyes and keep moving forward. If you vow to find the strength to never give up. When we find our own hope, we can inspire others to live a different life.

So for those that I love that have lost hope. Stay with me. I will spend this year searching and reading all about hope. I will think about it, write about it, and live it. And, hopefully somehow I can help you find it too.