Who said the Christian life would be easy? Certainly not the first disciples! Not only will our service to God take a great deal of effort, as will defending our faith, but our spiritual growth as well.

We can be convinced of our beliefs, stand firm in our position, and reject any contrary opinion. But that would certainly not be very wise. We must be humble enough to realize that we don’t know everything.

Jesus would not have asked us to love our enemies if it was natural. And while we may not see our “exes” as “enemies,” sometimes we have a hard time accepting God blessing them. An attitude to correct!

There are evenings when our soul is not at its best. Everyone around us seems happier than us and nothing seems to be working for us. So we start to lament. It’s a nasty spiral that gets us nowhere.

Faced with our current challenges, we sometimes look to the past with envy. Everything seemed easy and more pleasant in our previous chapter. Sometimes we even try to return to this past, which is never a good idea!