What words would you use to describe life? Scary, hard, daunting? Or maybe, beautiful, exciting, fun. You might even have a mixture of both. Nonetheless, no one can live on this earth without coming to the conclusion that life is hard. There are situations, minutes, days, and or years that put such a strain on our mental and physical bodies that giving up seems much easier. But we don't. Given the alternative, life and hope for a future, largely out ways the former. We find a little nugget of hope to hold onto. We take immense pride in the small victories we take under our belt. We chuckle in the face of our mountains while we still have adrenaline from overcoming the last one. That's just it. We overcome. When we feel like giving up, we find reasons not to. We find courage. We use whatever emotions we feel to light a fire and drive ourselves to the finish line. What drives you may vary from what drives me. In fact, what drives you right now will most likely differ from what drives you in the next battle. Nevertheless, we overcome. We face our fears. God drowns our fears in His perfect love by giving us courage, power, strength. We muster up all we can, then we get more from God, and we just do it. And the feeling of victory when you do reach the top… it's indescribable. You feel accomplished.

Now, has anyone ever rained on your parade? You know, when you're in the middle of doing your victory dance and someone goes, "You're celebrating over that? Get back to work. Do better next time." You're like uggghhhhh, really?

First of all, that person is not in your shoes. They don't understand the hardship you've just overcome. Secondly, they have no right to judge, as that role is effectively taken by God. And thirdly, who's to say that they could've overcome the same obstacle given the same exact situation? Basically, it's just rude when they steal the spotlight. And what about when you just recently won a battle, but you're already feeling the inevitable pressure of the oncoming attack? You just feel it in your bones that something is about to come. And boom! Someone is right there to remind you of everything you're afraid of. Whatever words they use, it's disheartening. Their words sting. All you feel is belittled. Your specific, personal hardship has been generalized with the masses. "Everyone has their own demon. Everyone has hard days. Life sucks. Move on." It makes you lose confidence. You feel like your accomplishments are nothing to be proud of. Your victories are not worthy of celebration. It hurts. You doubt yourself and your capabilities. In turn, that makes what was already a bad day, worse. On top of feeling pressure, you're reminded of all your short-comings.

People, be nice. And especially when you see someone finding joy in their accomplishment… don't ruin it. Just be nice humans, OK?