Young, Wild & Carefree

"Everything that is done in this world is done by hope."
                 - Martin Luther King Jr.

I come across college kids on a daily basis and I always have this knack of watching them and wondering if me and my friends were anything like them at that age.

Truth is, college kids are loud (and for me to notice this means only one thing and I'll let you figure that out on your own), they're also mainly unassuming and rarely care if they are prim and proper in public, in fact they're prouder of themselves when they're boisterous and sometimes it makes me wonder how we go from free loving to uptight and boring.

It also makes me wonder how we go from being in awe of the world and passionate about our causes to being stuck in a desk job and wondering why we can't just skip right back to Friday when Monday rolls around. We used to be vibrant people looking forward to the day we finally toss our graduation caps in the air in a guile attempt for freedom, however years pass and we wonder why we ever wanted to leave the safety of being a teenager.

We've been told that lie that once we get older things become lamer and we can no longer have the same fun we had when we were younger. Truth is, the only way we can get to that point is if we allow ourselves to think that way.

Yes, we are lauded by responsibilities we didn't even consider when we were younger and with circumstances that we didn't even think was possible and these things can weigh as down.

But I believe that the reason why we were so carefree when we were younger was because we knew that we had so much to live for and so much to look forward to.  Our future was brimming with possibilities and we knew that something good was bound to happen because we've been told that our future was bright.

So what happened?

We came across tough situations and immediately our idealism and optimism is thrown out the window and instantly, we're despondent and instead of dreaming big, we are tasked to just settle and sigh because "well, this is as good as it is going to get."

There is no denying that life can sometimes be tough and while it is true that we cannot get what we want all the time, we do get it eighty percent of the time.

I'd like to believe that every time we get hurt, betrayed or just simply run over by life, we can choose to simply sit there, cry and never ever hope for good to happen again or we can sit for awhile, weep if we must and then attack life again with even more vibrant optimism than ever before.

No matter what circumstances you are facing now, I assure you that it is not greater than who our God is and what He can do.

Our God is the God who makes dreams come true everyday and the only way we can see those dreams come true is by holding on to hope.

Hope makes us come alive. Hoping wakes us up inside while constantly being negative leaves us with nothing but bad health and frown lines. I do believe that if we dwell on the positive things that could still happen in our lives, we actually attract.

I know that there are times when God takes something away from us or doesn't answer our prayers but it doesn't mean He's evil, it just means that He knows that prayer will destroy us in one way or another so he doesn't permit it.

God is our Father and He loves us the way our earthly fathers love us, so what makes you think that He has nothing but bad things for you? That's quite the opposite of the grand things He has for us, He already gave us Jesus, what else would He withhold from us?

So tonight as you sleep, why don't you allow yourself to dream like a little child?

And soon, we'll be the carefree kids we once were, joyfully expectant of what lies ahead because let me tell you THERE ARE GREAT DAYS AHEAD.

Now isn't that the best way to stay young, wild and carefree?