I believe in hope.

I'm sick and tired of people constantly complaining.

Lately, I have been paying special attention to those who constantly complain, whine, and moan about their mistakes, faults, and general bad luck in life. Nobody wants to be around people like that.

I believe that we have a general desire to live in a world full of love, hope and faith. However, we seriously suck at meeting any of those requirements. I consider myself to be a very hopeful person, and I think I probably get shut down everyday for my hopeful and usually cheesy statements.

Attempting to live a downright happy and hopeful life is unbelievably hard every day and it's starting to piss me off. I can't figure out why people don't want happiness or don't want hope. The only thing holding us back is the image in our heads of how our lives are meant to be. We think we should have the access to the best things, the best job, the best paycheck, etc, and when we don't get those things we "hate our lives." 

We have been blessed with amazingly beautiful lives and we should act as such. We should thank God daily, through both our words and our actions! Talk about how amazing your day was with others. Act as though this is the best day of your life. It should not matter if you got cut off on the highway, arrived late to work, or whatever. Get upset momentarily, and then get over it. You're life is absolutely breathtaking. You are surrounded by beautiful people who would do anything for you. Shut your mouth and open your eyes and you might see it. 

Love everyone.

Love everyone.

It's just two words and seems easy enough right? I think in today's world, loving everyone is probably one of the hardest things to do.

Why should we love everyone?

Why should we love those who have hurt us?

Why should we love those who disrespect us?

Why should we love those who clearly don't love us back?

Because Jesus did.

Jesus was hurt by people immensely more than most of us have ever. I took a moment to think about the most hurtful things people have ever done or said to me and it does not come close to what Jesus went through. 

Jesus was beaten, betrayed, and denied. 

Yet, he forgave and loved those who hurt him. 

We are an extremely selfish population. We always want to know what is in it for us. I know that personally, there have been times where I have failed to forgive and love others because there was nothing in it for me. Because I knew at the end of the day, that person was going to say something mean and rude about me. I didn't want to give my love to someone if they were not going to reciprocate it back. It took me a very long time to realize that's not what its about. 

By no means is loving everyone easy. It is undeniably a hard task to do, but just because something is hard does not mean we shouldn't strive for it. This past year I struggled immensely to love another person. They had hurt me, a lot, and I knew they were going to keep hurting me so I did not want to forgive and love. I went to confession and explained this to Fr. He simply smiled and said, "Katty, you have to forgive them. Whenever its hard for you to love them, remember that God loves them immensely, and God sees the good in them, even if you can't see that right now." Well that certainly felt like a slap in the face. Here I was, thinking I knew everything, when I clearly don't. If God can love everyone, Why the heck can't I? 

The only thing stopping us from loving everyone is ourselves.