I was reminded of Abraham Lincoln the other day, I know, I know, you are right, what a dork.

His birthday was recently, so I got to thinking about old Abe. I don’t know if you know much about him, he was a man that had major perseverance. Abe just kept moving forward no matter what. He had a lot of heartache, he had a lot of hardships, he had a lot of things that happened to him, that really sucked! I can only imagine what he felt as he was going through those things. We read it in a textbook, or we see it written down on paper. Of course, we didn’t know him, but you can’t help, but have your heart go out to him and have compassion for the man that was.

Perseverance in the Face of Adversity

I really love ol’ Abe. Politics aside here, I’m just talking about Abe as a person. Someone who just kept moving forward. As I thought about him that day, the same phrase kept coming up: perseverance in the face of adversity. We all need perseverance in the face of adversity! I say WE, because I’ve been there. That’s the only way I feel okay with speaking about these things. I’ve been stuck and felt I couldn’t move forward. I’ve been through tough times. And, I still go through tough times, but we have a decision to make. Do we want to move forward and persevere? Or do we want to give up and fall into depression and anxiety?

I mean, we all have our things. We’ve all been through testimonies, trials and tribulations and just plane crap. But, we’ve got to figure out how to keep moving forward.

Perseverance in the Face of Adversity

Be Better Today Than You Were Yesterday

I tell my kids every day and to remind myself: Try to be better today, than you were yesterday. We’re human, we’re gonna fail at these things somedays, but we’ve got to pick ourselves back up and keep moving forward!

I don’t know about you. I will never be perfect like Jesus. Until the day that I die, I will be striving to be more like Him. To do that, you’ve got to have perseverance in the face of adversity. You can’t let the adversity in your life get you down so bad to where you wanna go and crawl underneath the covers and just say, “Screw it. I don’t wanna do this anymore.” Believe me, I’ve been there. I have fallen into that temptation. I have done that, gone back to bed, and then depression just sets in, even more. Not moving forward, I stay stagnant or either I take a step backwards.

Keep Moving Forward

On this journey of life, keep moving forward. Don’t play the victim card. We all can get into that. Believe me. We all can get into playing the victim card at, oh my gosh, at any given moment. I can fall victim. Somebody can say something to me sometimes, or maybe things that have happened in my life, even in the past and I’ve kind of gotten past it, sometimes I can fall back into that trap, of playing the victim card. I have to … All that does to you is pull you back, or keep you stagnant. It’s not helping you move forward. Don’t play the victim card. It’s not gonna help you, it’s not gonna help anybody around you. It’s not gonna help at all. Stop playing the victim. Stop letting the enemy basically take you in and say, “You suck. You’ve been through these trials and tribulations. You can’t make it through?” Don’t let ’em do that to you. Seriously.

Abe, good old Abe, I mean, was not elected into certain offices. You can go look him up, but he was not elected into certain offices that he was trying to get elected into several times. I’m just pulling things off the top of my head. His wife-to-be, they were engaged and she died. I don’t remember what she died from. Good lord, he was shot at. I mean, he had so many things that happened to him through his life. I do believe that from what I read of him, I’m not really sure, cause I didn’t know the dude, but I mean, sure he had a hard time with depression, or anxiety, but he kept … The secret was, he kept moving forward. He never once played the victim card.

Don’t Play the Victim

I know a lot of us have a lot of history. We have a lot of things that we’ve been through. Sometimes it just really weighs us down. Maybe you grew up poor. Maybe you grew up with a parent who abused you. Maybe, you were sexually abused by somebody that you trusted in your family. I get it guys. I have a story too. If you don’t know my story, then I encourage you to go and look up on amandamiddleton.me and read about some of my story. You would be very surprised about my story and the testimony that I have. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not perfect. Every single day … I’m not perfect any day. I’m not perfect any time. My secret is, to keep moving forward, even on the days that it sucks, even on the days that it blows chunks, just keep moving forward.

Perseverance in the Face of Adversity

 

Find your perseverance in the face of adversity always. You’re always gonna have adversity. It’s the way that you handle the adversity. It’s the way that you go through the adversity that matters. Have perseverance in the face of adversity all the time. Keep your faith. Keep your faith in God. Don’t put your faith in a man. Don’t put your faith in anyone else, but God. Keep moving forward. Believe his promises. Believe what he’s promised you, even though it’s not coming through right now, it will. I don’t know, I’m about to run out of time here.

A lot of you know and if you are new here, a lot of you know that I went through five heart surgeries in 2018, within 12 months. It blew. It sucked. I hated every bit of it. Every day, people ask me all the time, “How did you keep your faith?” I kept my faith, because I knew that God would come through for one AND I just knew. That’s what he told me. That’s what my bible tells me so. That’s what he told me. Two, I kept moving forward. Even whenever I couldn’t get up out of the bed, my business, with my kids, whatever it was, I kept moving forward, I did what I had to do from the bed. Do what you have to do, even from bed, if that’s what you have to do.

God Will Come Through With Perseverance in the Face of Adversity

Perseverance, in the face of adversity. Don’t ever forget that. Keep moving forward. Don’t keep the victim mentality. Go past that, cause you’re so much better than that. Keep the faith. God will come through. He came through for me. I’m here to talk about it now. I actually have my health back again. Things are looking up. Just keep your faith. Perseverance in the face of adversity. Go through every day thinking about old Abe. Old Abe, he’s pretty cool if you ask me. Go to Disneyland and go see all the stuff about Abe. I think he’s just pretty good. Anyway, you knew I had to throw in Disney. I’m about to run out of time, so love you all. I will see you next time.