Leading & Loving Your Family
Maturity doesn’t come with age; it begins with the acceptance of responsibility – A.R. Bernard “Four Things Women Want From A Man
If asked, most people would tell you that they are a mature person. If a couple is in a disagreement, each person thinks that they are being the mature one. So how do we know if we’re being mature or if we are still young in mind and spirit? Like the above quote, maturity comes down to responsibility.
Having difficult conversations can be challenging, especially when we’ve never had them before. We can tend to avoid situations that challenge our growth in certain areas. The parts of our lives that are hard are that way because we have developed a habit of avoidance.
The protest that have been happening around the world are showing us that we need to have difficult conversations concerning race.
As I reflect on why we’ve avoided these difficult conversations, I realized that I’ve avoided difficult conversations in my life. Trying to sidestep those conversations has caused me to become stagnant in my life. While this realization may have started because of racism, I’ve seen how I avoided difficult things throughout my life.
This has been a hard week in the world of sports and entertainment. You’ve probably heard by now about the tragic news of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife, Keri, and their daughter Alyssa; mother and daughter Sarah and Payton Chester; basketball coach Christina Mauser; and pilot Ara Zobayan. I’m not here to go over Kobe’s career or his life after basketball, but like so many people are thinking about their connections to him, I wanted to offer some words of comfort.
Moments like this, where we may not have known someone personally, but were able to watch their life as we lived our own. These can be hard times. People will tell you to think of the good memories and that may help some of you. For me, it just made it worse. So what do we do in these moments?
How to deal with loss is something that everyone goes through. These are my ideas and thoughts on how to make it through.
This may seem like a “churchy” answer, but the truth is, when we have times of tragedy are when most people turn to God. That’s when you will see all of the prayer posts on social media. People tend to ask questions during this time. This may be the time most when people talk to God.
For most people, prayer is where they go when they don’t know where else to go. They’re last resort for the unanswerable questions. Prayer for Christians isn’t about God being our last resort, but it’s about making Him our first choice. So, we don’t just turn to God during times of trouble, but we realized He’s with us every day.
Difficult times become harder the more you spend your time thinking about them. Our minds begin to race to the unanswerable questions, and we can dwell on the loss or devastation. Laughter is a great way to keep you from dwelling on the hurt, pain, and loss.
This is one thing that being on social media can help you with. Finding a funny video has never been easier. While the pain may be there, finding something to laugh at help break up the moment.
It’s sad that sometimes it takes a loss to remind us of the close ones we have around us. But it’s family and friends that can help us to get through the hard times.
Difficult situations are not the time to be isolated. Having some time alone to process and sort through your feelings is one thing, but spending too much time alone can leave you open to depression setting in. At some point, you want to be around people to have that interaction.
These are just some of my thoughts in regards to the passing of Kobe Bryant and all the victims that were in that helicopter.
