Giving Up. Submitting To Defeat. Is It Wise?

Did You Ever Just Feel Like Giving Up? It’s a common feeling that happens to people when their problems seem overwhelming. They whine and complain as if whining and complaining solves anything. Well, it doesn’t. Neither does worrying (where did I hear the phrase “does worrying add one extra day to your life?”)

One quick way to lose the respect of your family, friends, and co-workers is to just whine and complain all the time. You’re not even supposed to do it a little bit. It’s destructive. I remember hearing that “When you complain to people about something bad that happened to you, you’ll find that most of those you tell are secretly glad it happened to you”. So don’t give them the satisfaction of hearing you complain.

Believe it or not, we as humans have a wonderful power that God gave us. It’s the will to win. Even animals have it. Most people waste it by quitting too early, but sometimes it surprises us by coming out at our most desperate times. I once heard a story that was supposed to be true. I don’t know all the details but apparently a wild cat, like a mountain lion or a Puma (I’m not sure) had gotten loose, or escaped from a zoo or a circus.

People ran for their lives, but one small boy was cornered by the big cat and it was getting ready to pounce. Suddenly the mother of the child jumped to his defense and she did the only thing she could. She balled up her fist and shoved it down the cat’s throat. She was injured, and lost a lot of blood, but both she and her boy survived. I even heard of a mouse whose baby mice were threatened by a hungry snake that attacked the snake and saved her little ones.

There is a great power in this ability to dig deep down to find the courage, and face adversity and suffering head on, solve the problem, and come out on top. But some people are easily defeated because the problem they’re facing isn’t immediately threatening. Like smoking cigarettes. Most people know that smoking cigarettes is bad for you, will eventually cause cancer, and will kill you. But it’s not going to kill you yet, today, or even in the next month. A lion will kill you instantly, but you can put off quitting your habit for now.

Most smokers who want to quit will eventually quit trying. But you must believe that whatever your goal, you must never never quit. If you continue to fight, you will eventually win. You might be poor and want very much to be richer, like say in the middle class for instance. But you might not feel that you’re good enough, or smart enough and you might feel that the deck is stacked against you. You might feel inferior. That you have no right to want to be a little better off in life. Well snap out of it. God made you in his image. God doesn’t create inferior people.

If your path to a better life is to be a professional, like a doctor or an engineer who designs electronic medical equipment, then do it. It may be very difficult, but it can be done by anybody. Yes, even you.

The thing you have to remember is that no matter what obstacles get in your way, they’re not really obstacles. They’re opportunities. Opportunities can be scary because some goals are difficult. But because they’re difficult, they’re more rewarding when you finally achieve it. By yourself. One thing I have always believed is that if you’re rich, the worst thing you can do for your child is pay his or her college tuition. Let them pay for it themselves. Let them work to earn it. Because if you pay for it, they’ll always expect you’ll be there to rescue them whenever they need help. They’ll learn valuable lessons. They’ll be better and more mature adults and a lot more capable of doing whatever it takes to handle whatever problem comes up.

The gift of self-reliance is more valuable than tuition money. The lessons you learn from overcoming barriers to accomplish some goal will make you a much more successful person.

Good luck.