WHY ARE WE GOING IT ALONE?

Lately I've been thinking a lot about connecting with people.

I have always been someone who has a lot of friends.  More specifically, I've had good friends.  People I can tell things to, vent to.  People I know things about and they know things about me.  They know how I feel about things, how I react to things, and what keeps me going.  Since we've moved here I haven't always felt that way.  There are people I talk to, but not many people I have made that deeper connection with.  This winter has been particularly difficult with school being so draining that I feel like I rarely see my husband, let alone anyone else.

I've been talking to friends about this recently and I'm not the only one who feels this way.  It seems hard to be on that deeper level with people.  A lot of times I feel like people are silent about their problems and it's almost "shameful" to have personal struggles.  I don't usually post thoughts like this on my blog, but I feel the need to get a thought out there.

And no, I'm not about to post a personal confession or anything like that.  That's exactly what I'm trying to say... Get out there and talk to a real person about it.  Don't keep quiet.  Don't post it on facebook.  Don't email someone about it.  Talk about it.  To a real person - face to face.

You don't have to be alone in your problems.  Here is what happens when you go it alone... When you don't share your life and your struggles with others:

1. You don't get any support.  If no one knows about it, no one can help you.  And not even in the sense of offering advice, just in the, "Hey, that sucks.  Sorry you're going through that.  I don't understand cause I've never been there but I want you to know I'm here for you."

2. You feel like you're the only one who has ever been through this.  Who knows?  When you share things with people, you might find out they've been there too.  "I think I'm going to lose my job."  "Oh really?  That's awful.  That happened to me a few years ago."  You're not the only one out there who has feelings and whose life isn't perfect.  You're pretty much the majority. :)

3. When someone else goes through a difficult situation, they feel like no one else has ever been there.  How would they know you've also been unhappy in your marriage, struggled with addictions, been unhappy for no good reason?

Do you see?  It's better if we share it.  We can help each other.  Hopefully we can give each other a little of God's love, because He's the one who gets us through things.  Prayer and hope are essential, and sometimes God will reach you through someone who is entirely human...and that's the whole point of the matter.

Something to think about.