   
One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed the set of footprints in the sand, one belonging to him and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it. "Lord, you said once I decided to follow you, you 'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troubled times of my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why you would leave me when I needed you most."
The Lord replied,"My child. My precious child. I love you and would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."
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~Footprints of my Life~
 A few days ago, I had a conversation with a colleague. She looked listless and was negative about everything - her life in general and her work. This was rather surprising to me because she has always been someone who has been always passionate about her work, in fact more passionate than me! But now, it seemed that she was giving up. She kept complaining about work but I was certain that the thing that was troubling her definitely wasn't work because I knew that deep down, she loved her job. So, I just casually asked her, "Are you troubled by any personal issues?" She was amazed that I asked that and asked me how could I possibly know. I told her what I know...that she has always been conscentious and competent with her work and things at work couldn't possibly turn out that bad in a matter of months! And then she admitted that she was indeed troubled by some 'heart' issues with someone of the opposite sex and the complains about work was just a way to release her frustration. Although she did not say it literally through her story, I could see that she had already given her heart to someone else, someone she was not sure whether would requite her affection. I could identify totally with her situation because I was once like that before. That is not to say that I do not have any of these struggles now but by the grace of God and much prayers, I am definitely much better at 'guarding my heart' than I was before. The fact was, I easily had 'crushes' on guys. If the guy was handsome or had some qualities which I admired, I was likely to have a crush on him. The worst part, I thought that it was right to have crushes! After all, the world glamourizes it.... Stars openly declare their crushes for each other, magazines have articles like "How to know if you have a crush on him", "How to get your crush to like you" and bla bla bla. If you have been living in this world for over twenty years like me, you would have seen these articles in magazines like Cleo and Seventeen before. I have to admit....the initial part of having a crush is a wonderful feeling. You feel like you have a target and you start fantasizing about the wonderful days that you and him would have if both of you were together. But all these are just what it is.... a fantasy. It is not true. This wonderful feeling doesn't last long. After a while, the truth gets down hard on you. Your heart has been given to him but there is no response from him and you feel hurt. The hurt can be big or small depending on how 'serious' your crush is. And this hurt is going to affect your daily life. I have failed tests, flunked presentations and cried a swimming pool of tears because of my crushes. My poor mum had also been my 'punching bag' before. Looking back, I am amazed at how my tendency to have 'crushes' have badly affected me. But I was powerless to do anything about it. In fact, this cycle of crushes kept repeating itself. It wasn't until I accepted the Lord and read one of Joshua Harris's books that I realize this was indeed a problem and I had to rely on the Lord for his strength to overcome it. I had to learn how to guard my heart and suppress my sinful desires to fantasize. I honestly think that crushes taint our ability to see the real person. This is because we already have romanticised views of the person when we have an infatuation on him. I have realised that instead of having crushes on someone, it is better to maintain a friendship with the person and know him as a friend. In that way, you will be able to see objectively his traits and character. As for whether a not the relationship will develop into something deeper, I will have to leave that to the Lord. Now, whenever I recognize that I have feelings of infatuation towards a guy, I confess my sinful thoughts to God and asks him to mercifully remove these thoughts of infatuation from my mind. I ask God to help me to treat guys with absolute purity. And it has always worked so far. Right now, I feel a lot happier with my life because I am no longer bounded by these thoughts of infatuation. For this peace and joy, I really have the Lord to thank. Because of what He did 2000 over years ago on the cross, I am now able to draw strength from Him and overcome my weaknesses. Hallelujah! MaRGaReT left her footprint @ 10:09 AM
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