ENDURE!!!!!!!

In my mind, the word endure means to keep going even though you want to stop.

How many of us REALLY exercise the power of this word? I know that oftentimes, I am guilty of giving up on something because it seems so hard, or because I can only see what I want. There are times where I just want to lay in bed all day and stare at the wall!

I have been thinking lately what it means to endure and how a person decides to keep pushing through something when it's really hard or when you should just give up. This is what I have decided:

When we look at ourselves, we know, or at least can come to know, the type of people we would like to become. We can know what our dreams are, what our goals are, and what the most important things that fuel us in life. Those are the things that define who we are and what we spend our time doing. We must figure these things out first to give our lives any sort of meaning.

I have decided this is how it goes:

curiosity --> interest ---> hope ---> belief --> faith--> knowledge --> perseverance

Life gets really hard, especially in the faith stage. My definition of faith in this context is the willingness to test and put to action what one believes to be true. The faith stage is critical because this is a stage a person decides if we truly believe in whatever it is we are hoping to be true. So in this experiment of one's beliefs and working towards this belief, but a person's life suddenly, or rather, more visibly becomes difficult, then that's a sign and you should just give up, right? It should just be easy! Or, you hear some information or a statement that contradicts what you believe; therefore, what you had a belief in is wrong, right? Absolutely not. While I am not encouraging anyone to follow blindly, some of the greatest discoveries have been made during that stage of struggle and turmoil!

Let me give a non-serious example:
Curiosity: Men for centuries looked at birds and saw their abilities to fly. They wondered what made them fly
Interest: Because they were so intrigued, they began to study birds and their flight, possibly even how men could fly.
Hope: As most children wish, many others hoped they could fly. They wanted to put forth this effort and even if they didn't know it would work, they wanted it to work
Believe: Men believed that with the right invention, they could fly like birds. So they assembled parts together
Faith: The moment of truth when the invention needed to be tested. They believed in something they couldn't see if it was right or not, but they acted anyways.
Knowledge: As long as the plane lifted off the ground, these men gained at least some knowledge. If the plane failed, they knew the invention didn't work
Perseverance: The men who experimented the planes continued to work on their inventions until they flew the way they believed.

Now what about the men who crashed and possibly survived? Just because they failed, does that mean that humans can't fly? Out of despair and frustration, their answer would probably be yes. But somewhere along the road, there were men who didn't give up, who saw glimpses of hope and kept trying until it became our first plane.

Things in life will become very difficult, but you should only give up if you look in the mirror and realize that you are no longer interested or believe in the same things anymore. If a person gets to that point, then introspection is required because most of the time, it's something else that comes in the way, or some of the stages before faith were missing.

I believe most people who claim to lose interest or belief in something, hasn't entirely lost belief: these are the people who are tired, exhausted, and want to do something else instead of this difficult task (Thus, give up instead of endure).

This is a very sensitive topic to me right now, especially when it has to do with parenting and children. Your choices should not affect or influence your children's decisions, especially if you know deep down that something is missing. Parents naturally teach their children what is good, and what is correct,  as they should, but expressing your own views and rubbing your insecurities and doubts on children whom you initially taught to believe in what you are now insecure or unsure about frustrates me, because it confuses the children and if affects everyone else.

My only plea is that more people endure. Endure when you feel the pain of feeling wrong. Endure when you have a nasty conversation that makes you want to walk away, endure when you are tired and you don't feel like doing more. Because in those moments, you will find more about yourself and what you believe in, instead of giving up and reshaping your entire schemata of life again.