Being a Christian isn't easy sometimes...

 Since I am not so proud as to pry into the gifts of God, I cannot say why it is that some people appear to be naturally inclined to temperance or silence or purity or modesty or meekness or contrition. Others have to fight hard against their own natures to acquire these, they have to force themselves onto the best of their ability, suffering occasional defeat on the way; and it seems to me that the very fact of having to struggle against their own natures somehow puts them into a higher category than the first kind. 

~ St. John Climacus

Does reading this give you the same comfort it gives me? Maybe it isn’t just me, and there is hope. Sometimes I feel that the burden of my struggle to please God, and constantly failing, is too much. Why does it have to be so hard?  Shouldn’t being a Christian be easier?  I mean, when I accepted the Lord as my Saviour and was baptized, I put on Christ. I felt like a new person. And yet this new person still struggles against the passions…same as before. Why did I say what I did?  Why did I do what I shouldn’t have done? But there is hope. The continual struggle is what saves us. That constant reminder that we need Him, because without Him, we are lost. So when we struggle, we must not lose hope. We are not “failures,” we are only a work in progress.

Written with love from Cynthia