Hope

 "If at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again." 

We watched the movie The Shack today. I read the book literally 20 years ago. I feel so old. 😂 I remember it was probably the most creative book I had ever read.  The movie is free on YouTube if you want to see it. 

It made me think of hope. You may have had a terrible childhood, or a catastrophic first marriage and divorce, but God can bring beauty out of the ashes. Keep your hope alive that your path will get better. But you have to make it better. Learn from your horrid past. What can you do differently next time? 

In my case I need to not trust people who are not trustworthy. I need to protect myself and those I love more, even if that means I get less help. Better to do things alone then to let evil in. I need to forget about a love of stuff. My greed and pride destroyed my first marriage. That was a major factor. But I saw my mom and mother in law being greedy. Their greed didn't destroy their marriages. I thought I could be greedy and all would be forgiven.

 You have to decide if you want to love people or things? If you love things too much, God can and will take the people away. Then you are left being Mr. Scrooge, alone with your money endlessly counting it because that is all you have left to care about. Love people and the money will come. In the end, people should matter 20 times more then any amount of money. 

Watch out for greed. Be cautious of evil people. Protect what you have. You never know how easy it can be to loose it.