Do not lag!

I love my wife and she loves me. We're a good match, our dispositions are different while our interests overlap a lot and almost everything we do, we enjoy doing it together. We both love God and have our own unique relationship with Him. We have wonderful children and a nice home. Our life together is excellent. I'm handsome, she's beautiful. We have everything going for us :)

And yet... there are times for the both of us that our emotions, and the enemy, tell us that we have a ruined life beyond recovery. I have this wonderful life, but sometimes I can still get myself worked up into an incredible despair. Have you ever given in to a feeling, have you chosen to let a negative feeling in you grow? Have you nurtured things like melancholy? I now see that there is a tendency in me to sometimes feel a little disappointed, and then decide to let that fester. I go from disappointment to malaise and ennui and other dark feelings that can only be uttered in french.

There is a part of me that wants to wallow. I have a great life but then at the slightest disagreement, the smallest expectation not met, I have a part of me that wants to take an emotional nosedive into the pit of despair. This tendency, if I give into it, causes me to work less at building my wife up and encouraging my children. I begin to see the small kindnesses that I should do as futility. I even stop asking for help, because, after all, who would help me? Nobody loves me.

I am overacting here, but just a little. I know that it is easy for us all to find an excuse to indulge in self pity. We have to know that about ourselves and learn better to fight it. Read Romans 12:10-11:

12:10 Be devoted to one another with mutual love, showing eagerness in honoring one another. 12:11 Do not lag in zeal, be enthusiastic in spirit, serve the Lord.

Words like devoted, eagerness, zeal, enthusiastic, and serve are all ingredients to the cure for depression and self pity. Do not lag, christian! Get excited about the blessings that you do have and stop thinking about what you don't have. Get eager to honor each other, find ways to help and encourage anyone within arm's reach. Be energetic about that tasks God has for you today.