Endured It

One day I was playing golf with some pastors in North Carolina.  The weather was not good at all.  And I was playing awful.  We pushed through, however.  And after 18 holes, I was glad to be done.  As we were leaving, one of my pastor friends looked at me, shook my hand, and said, "Well, endured it."  Notice he didn't say "Enjoyed it."  He just "endured it."  In fairness to him, I felt the same way.

There are some difficult seasons of life we have to endure.  "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus" is what Paul says to the young pastor in 2 Timothy 2:3.  Adversity creeps into the life of everyone from time to time, and we do have to be strong and hang in there.

But for the most part, I don't want to endure life.  I want to enjoy it!  And I bet you do too.

Let's choose to enjoy life.  

We can do this by...

[a]  Counting our blessings.

[b]  Looking for the good in every situation.

[c]  Remembering that tough times are temporary.

[d]  Appreciating the simple things of life.

[e]  Finding pleasure in God's presence.

[f]  Keeping in mind Heaven awaits us. 

Life.  It's a blessing.  And it can be more than something we endure.  Far more.  We can actually enjoy it.  So let's choose to do that by looking to God and staying close to Him.