Yes, Life is Tough, and Suffering Builds Character...
Well, the title says almost all of it. In fact, the only thing that it doesn’t say is, ‘I got to go!!!’.
Since I’d love for you to hear about how wonderful a time I had at the banquet, but since I’m too lazy to write out the whole thing, I’ll post a link here that will send you to my Mom’s blog, where she posted about it.
~Nick
Well, I have finally come up with the inspiration for another quick post with some spiritual values in it!
The other day, I was at my Grandparents’ house, and they had ALOT of hard work that they needed done. My Dad and my brother Jake both work, and they didn’t have free vacation time, and my Mom was busy helping my Grandma in the kitchen, basically leaving me (okay, and my Uncle Larry) with a boatload of work (including, but not limited to: cutting logs, carrying logs, cleaning up debris from cutting and carrying logs, cutting bamboo, carrying bamboo, burning bamboo, carrying excess bamboo away and tying it up, moving more sticks and debris, etc…).
Two days into all this hard work, thoughts started coming into my mind. Thoughts that said, ‘Boy, wouldn’t it be nice if I got payed for all this hard work? Wouldn’t it?’. As the day went on, the thoughts kept coming, and as I got more and more tired, and the work got harder and harder, the thoughts bombarded me more and more and more. Before I knew it, I felt that I deserved some compensation for my hard work.
Finally, I said to myself, ‘Nick, you are not doing this job for money. You’re doing this because you love your grandparents. If you were doing this for money, you wouldn’t work non-stop. You’re working hard because they can’t, and you love them. God said somewhere in the Psalms (I looked it up, Psalms 37:4), “Delight in me, and I will give you the desires of your heart”. If they’re going to pay you for your hard work, that’s great. Then I’ll thank God for fulfilling the desires of my heart. But if not, that’s fine too. The fact that you are helping them is compensation enough. God, help me to stop desiring money for my work. I will not allow any more thoughts like this to enter my head now. I am doing this out of love.’
I repeated this for the remainder of day two, and all of day three. Finally, the work was done, and it was time for me to go home. As I was leaving, I spotted a twenty sitting on my Grandparent’s table. My first thought was, ‘That’s for me!’, but I immediately pushed the thought from my head, saying, ‘No, you worked out of love.’
When I got home, still no compensation. No money. But I was fine with that. I had worked out of love, and I felt great about being able to help my Grandparents. Life was good.
The next day, my Dad came up to me, and handed me $50. ‘That’s from Grandma and Grandpa for all the work you did’. My jaw dropped (hey, $50 is alot of money for me), as I remembered how I had just let go of my desire for money, and let God take control. Now, he had granted me the desires of my heart.
~Nick
Hey, I just wanted to let you all know that I’m still alive, and that I have a good, well-thought-out post in the making, and that I AM planning to post some serious, spiritual stuff soon. I’m just kind of under a unable-to-write-out-my-posts-the-way-I’d-like-to cloud that will hopefully soon pass. Hopefully I’ll come up with some good stuff soon.
Until then,
~Nick
Alright, new favorite quote:
Just yesterday, my 6 year old brother was talking to me, when suddenly, he looked up at me, paused for a moment, then thoughtfully said, ‘Nick, if you want to become cool, you have to become a Jedi.’
Haha, good advice, Josiah. I’ll have to remember that. 
Actually, hmmm….
Okay, maybe not…
~Nick
Yes!!! I finally got to see the movie I’ve been wanting to see since, like, forever! I finally got to see the greatest adventure movie ever! I finally got to see an adventure-genre movie! And above all, I got to see Harrison Ford in a movie other than Star Wars!
Last Sunday night, I got to see:
Indiana Jones: The Raiders of the Lost Ark
(insert emoticon of little yellow smiley-faced guy running around screaming in hyper-active excitement, then falling flat on his back in exhaustion).
I believe that my patient understanding and mature wisdom, stated in one of my previous posts on my old blog, finally paid off, and my parents saw that I was old enough to watch these movies.
Thank you Dad! Thanks for letting me watch. I REALLY appreciate it… more than you know (actually, you were 14 once, so you probably do know, so… I guess that was kind of… contradictory…).
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One point I do need to stress, however, is that my Dad DID fastforward one inappropriate scene with Indy and Marion. Sorry for digressing, but I do think that’s important to stress…
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Well, I’ve got to run. Thanks for reading about this joyous milestone in my life, about this monumentous moment in my life. And thank you for NOT commenting saying, ‘Nick, I saw those movies when I was FIVE YEARS OLD!!!’.
To all you Adventurers out there,
Goodbye, and ‘G’dday, mate’.
~Nick
"Yes, life is tough and suffering builds character. Nothing worth having every comes easy. Virtue is its own reward..."
