The Bigger Picture

Oh Finals week...

It's not so much that it's Finals week that's getting to me. I mean, yeah... Final's pretty much determine your grade for the whole semester, and it's all cumulative... that is pretty hard. But Finals week is especially hard because of all the things happening in addition to finals week.

“It isn’t the mountain ahead that wears you out; it’s the grain of sand in your shoe.” 
-- Robert W. Service 

I definitely have a lot of sand in my shoe.

For me, what has been helping me out, and this is an understatement, is looking at the bigger picture - and I really mean the BIG picture:

God loves me, and won't let me go through anything I cannot handle. He's there with me through it all. One day, I will die.  Hopefully, when I die I'll get to go to Heaven to be with Jesus forever, where there is no worries, no sadness, no more suffering.... Heaven excludes all and every form of unhappiness. But to get to Heaven, I need to do the best I can to get through all this suffering I'm going through right now with His help, and at the same time - try to not worry so much and try to enjoy.  He is in control of everything, and even allows some unpleasant things to happen but only for my future benefit (which happened because of my stubbornness anyways, and He even works with that, too! He wastes nothing!); therefore, everything that happens is my opportunity to grow and become better - so there's no reason to be afraid. I just need to try my best to work out all this sand in my shoes, let go when I've done my best, trust in His plan, and go through it with Him by my side. 

It's so beautiful and life-giving for me to hear and repeat what I just wrote.. it's just so hard for me to hold on to when times get so incredibly tough.  But I can't give up...not now. I need to stay faithful, trust, and keep to the bigger picture.

Finals... here I go.