People have struggles because they are people. We live in an imperfect world, because we are imperfect. Families struggle because they are composed of people. Groups of people struggle and nations struggle. What is the solution? People are. But, how can people be the solution if people are the problem?

We are not yet in paradise, but it is helpful if we have hope and direction ...and that motivation comes from the belief that we will some day be in that paradise, and that we aspire to what it represents.  That paradise does not represent an ideology in my own head, it is a place described in the Bible which I believe is real.

So what do we do with that?  Our daughter posted an article that explained that often it's not what we do.

"Sometimes the route to happiness depends more on what you don't do."  There were ten things listed ...I'm only going to list 3 of the top 5, not because I don't like the rest, it's just that these seem to go together:

• Blaming ...it's always better and more effective to each focus on what we can do, while blaming mostly omits this thought and focuses on another
• Complaining (the article said whining) ...which usually makes it worse. We've been told that we need to vent, and get it off our chest ...which is often true, but not if it gets in our chest.  The heart of the matter is, that it often becomes so much a part of us, that it can become our first response.
• Impressing ...this can be so self-defeating.  It is good to do our best, but we try to impress everyone we can go insane.  It's also not good to impress those that may not lead us in a healthy direction.