YOUR IMMEDIATE SITUATION

Whatever your situation in life, you will always have some kind of duty or responsibility, especially to our parents or authority figures, who have put themselves out, given us life and nurtured our early years with considerable self-sacrifice.

Because of their additional decades of life experience, and also their affection for you, it is always valuable to consider their opinion, and usually the wise advice from older people, before making any important decisions.

If however, there is any kind of abuse, be it physical, emotional or sexual, then any vulnerable young person should talk about the situation with another adult who you trust. Such a sharing will be a strength for you to consider what can be done to stop further abuse.

Regarding your friends and acquaintances on Social Media, you have choices.

People only have as much power over you, as you give them.

Choosing to allow yourself to be influenced by the ‘Dopamine Buzz’ of the Social Media community is not living, and routinely causes unhappiness with your own life, when compared with other people’s ‘Highlight Reel’ of selected photos.

Comparing yourself with others to determine our worth is like a curse:

It distorts your view of things, and depending on your motivation, can cause you to either be defeated and unhappy, or puffed up with pride which is without foundation.

Theodore Roosevelt stated: “Comparison of the thief of Joy!”, pointing out that “A flower does not think of competing with other flowers next to it. It just blooms.

When making decisions in your Immediate Situation, always do your best to be ‘good’ – which will be guided by your Conscience, since peace is promised to those who try to do good, and those who act against their Conscience, for whatever reason of external pressure, will lose their peace.

“Peace to men of good will!”

“There is no peace for the wicked”

In the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ dictated by Jesus, the reason he included the line:

“Give us this day our daily bread”

… is because God wants us only to be concerned with the needs of today. One day at a time!

We are not to worry about tomorrow, or next week, but only to deal with the decisions in front of us, today.

Summary

So whatever your Immediate Situation may be:

·      Be dutiful and attend to your responsibilities

·      Be ‘good’ in your decisions and action, irrespective of peer pressure – be true to yourself.

·      Treat others – everyone - as you would like to be treated

·      Allow God to guide you with His Inspirations – spontaneous thoughts which sound different to other thoughts.

Ask and trust God to be at the centre of your day. Be docile to whatever God arranges if any plans change: Be curious, not concerned.

This trust and docility brings a lifestyle of great peace.