Good morning everyone,

2 Timothy 2:3-5–Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs — he wants to please his commanding officer.

There is a brilliance that goes into television programming that makes me ask the question why is "reality television" so popular in our country? I believe the producers and writers know that the majority of people in our country are overly concerned about feeling better about themselves. So what better way to attract viewers by integrating other people’s "choreographed hardships" and watching them react childlishly to them, and call it reality T.V. Sadly people see it and then feel better about themselves, making us self-righteous!

My wife had a great qoute the other day about how "we want to blame our hardships on others, but hardships really reveal who you are". In other words our hardships are real and orchestrated by a wise Father who knows what will conform us to Christ. Not an egotiscal writer/producer seeking ratings by any means necessary by orchestrating drama that makes for good T.V.

Ultimately hardships will have to be answered by us alone, because only we (and Jesus) know how we feel in them. If we somehow think our situation and other people are the source of our hardships, than we will never look inward to see how responsible we are for our own lack of faith and unhappiness. As a Christian we should believe and trust in an all knowing and powerful God who is in control. So if this God is a reality in our lives, He maybe revealing to us that the reason we blame everyone else for our discontentment and unhappiness, is because we are worshipping people as idols who are not giving us what we desire. Only Christ can give us what we should desire, and most times that’s simply a basic contentment and peace where we are no matter how hard it is. Trust that He knows and will hear our cry for help in hardships if our desire is to live for HIm.

In His Love Ld