Life Lesson #5: Time Flies When You're Having Fun

9/02/2010 Estreitta 0 Comments

Life Lesson #5: Time Flies When You're Having Fun



This lesson took a while for me to get a hold of....  I found that it was a lot easier for me to be depressed and just dwell and focus on the junk going on in my life than picking myself up off the couch and go out into the world and have fun. Between my amazing Godly friends in my life and God intervening and protecting me at strategic times, I know for a fact that not be were I am right now.

Don't Let Depression Cripple You!



I had just gone through the worst relationship ever. I was recovering and being consoled by hanging out on my parents couch and watching reruns of the Brady Bunch eating tv dinners my dad would pick up by the dozens cause my mom was out of town.

Yeah it was pretty pathetic. But I do think when people are grieving over things they do need to check out for a little bit, the problem is that some don't know how to get out of it and 10 years later they are 700 lbs and they don't know how they ever got to this point.

If you have ever heard of or saw Ruby Gettinger story on the Style network you know what I'm talking about. If not, in short, at here heaviest, Ruby had gotten up to 700 lbs. Not until the last few years, with alot of very hard work, Ruby has gotten down to the 300's. She says she's never been that skinny in her adult life. Throughout the show you learn about how Ruby would sit in her comfy chair and just ate and ate. Then finally it caught up to her. Her health was in trouble so she had to do something about it and her friends were/are right beside her every step of the way.

This last Season, she also did things she had never done before she went to Australia went race car drive and even rode a horse. Ruby's Inspiring Story is motivation for anyone who needs to get out of their rut.

For Ruby, she needed to get out of her chair, her home, and her comfort zones.


Friends can be a life-line

I am so thankful I had friends that wouldn't let me sulk for too long. My BFF Mandy and I whenever we get together and one of us starts laughing it just is contagious.  Back when we were both single, I remember this one time when I was going through some very difficult stuff, we hung out at her apartment and I remember we just laughed all night about everything and anything.  I don't know if I had ever laughed that hard before. That night totally was instrumental in my life and it helped me forget the things I was worrying about and I realize that I just needed to enjoy life.  I don't know if I would have discovered that without that fun evening I had Mandy.


“I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let's face it, friends make life a lot more fun."  - Charles R. Swindoll 
Sometimes when friends are going through challenges, it can be difficult to know what to say to help them.  Talking helps, but taking the time to just be with friends where you just laugh about anything can be the life-line they needed. When you have a friend going though something, make an effort to hang out with them or invite them along to an outing or church event, concert, ballgame, movie, shopping can really make a HUGE difference in their life.




Don't Stay in the Pit
THE PIT

A man fell into a pit and couldn't get himself out. He called for help...

A SUBJECTIVE person came along and said: "I feel for you, down there."

An OBJECTIVE person came along and said: "It's logical that someone would fall down there."

A PHARISEE said: "Only bad people fall into a pit."

A MATHEMATICIAN calculated how he fell into a pit.

A NEWS REPORTER wanted the exclusive story on his pit

A SPIRITUALIST said: "Your pit is only a state of mind.

A FUNDAMENTALIST said: "You deserve your pit."

A REALIST said: "Now THAT'S a pit."

 An I.R.S. MAN asked if he was paying taxes on the pit.

The CITY INSPECTOR asked if he had a permit to dig a pit.

A PROFESSOR gave him a lecture on: "The elementary principles of the pit."

A SELF-PITYING person said: "You haven't seen anything until you've seen MY pit!"

An OPTIMIST said: "Things could have been worse."

A PESSIMIST said: "Things will get worse!!"

A CHARISMATIC said: "just confess you're not in the pit."

AN EVANGELICAL said: "You should be saved from the pit."

JESUS, seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit"

      - source unknown

I know that sometimes when you are the person going through it and struggling with depression it can get to a point where you feel alone, hopeless and miserable. Dwelling on what went wrong or the mistakes you made will not help you at all it just feeds it.  Don't let yourself Stay there!


For me, God speaks to me most often when I am either in the shower or in the car. Once while I was driving,  I was just thinking about all the mistakes I had made in my life and how I felt that it prevented me to fulfill the Call of God on my life.  Then I heard the Lord's still quiet voice say to me "Did you know that when you focus your thought on yourself rather than Me you are bringing the enemy glory?"

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (Young's Literal Translation)

 4For the weapons of our warfare [are] not fleshly, but powerful to God for bringing down of strongholds, 5reasonings bringing down, and every high thing lifted up against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of the Christ

That simple statement helped me see what I was doing.  Rather than walking in the forgiveness the Lord had given me and even more rather than praising Him and worshiping Him, I was so focusing on myself that was like praises to the enemy's ears.  Self focus is pride, and that pride can dig the pit deeper if you stay focused on yourself rather than the Savior of your Soul!

Psalm 40:2 (New King James Version)

 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
         Out of the miry clay,
         And set my feet upon a rock,
         
And established my steps.

Make a Change

When I was a college student, I felt that I was continually making the same mistakes and dealling with the same issues over and over.

During this one season of my life, I started hanging out with people who weren't Christians and instead of me being a light in the darkness the darkness began to creep into my life.  Standards and values I thought I would never compromise on I began to "not have a problem with it."

Before too long I stopped going to church, hanging out with or speaking with my True friends, and I would find myself in places and situations I never thought I would.  The next day I would ask God for forgiveness and I asked Him to help me change and not allow these things to drag me in to a dark place. It became a vicious cycle. I know it seems so obvious now, but back then I thought I was helping these people.

One day I was asking the Lord, "How in the world did I get here?" and He showed me how I began to lower my boundaries and began to accept things that i knew was causing a separation between Him and I.   I had to make a change,  I had to choose between life and death.  I am thankful I chose life!

One of the Choices I had to make was even quitting the job I working at, even though the pay was really good and I really enjoyed it it was where most of the people I became friends with that were dragging me down.  Now let me also say this, that even though these particular friends weren't "Christians" there are some people in your life that say they are Christians and you know you have to separate yourself from them too because they are not choosing Life either.

Other simple things you can do to make a change is the scenery go visit friends or family you haven't seen in a while. After I quit my Job, I knew I needed to get a way for a while.  So i went to visit my Family in Pennsylvania for a few months, I even got a Temp Job there so I could make some money while I was there.

Do something that you've always wanted to do but haven't.  When I was a freshman in College, I had just broken up with my first boyfriend. When we were dating we had decided that we'd go skydiving and I reserved for us to go in the spring with a deposit.  So Since we weren't together and I still had the reservation and I didnt want to loose my deposit & mostly because I always wanted to do it; I decided to go Skydiving anyways! It was so amazing, I'd love to do it again sometime!



Rather than using all of your emotion and energy to stay depressed let it empower you instead by having fun!  Life can be difficult at times, but its what you do with that time that can change your life!

Time truly does fly when you have fun.  I was just talking about this with some friends yesterday, Erik and I will be celebrating our 10th Wedding Anniversary in May.  But you know it doesn't feel like we've been married for almost a decade.  I like to think that it is because we are too busy having fun and enjoying our lives together!






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