When sadness and failure attack...

Last sunday we talk about sadness and failure in our lives... we have a sadness survey to see what event will cause youths to be sad. if im can remember correctly a few things that cause youth to be very sad are: messed up a presentation, dad loses his job, best friend betrayal etc. and the things that don't really bother them are like school being close down, don't get invited to friends party, vacation cancelled... etc. (dont know they express the truth or not...) but it was fun.
there are many things that we could be sad about or even crush our lives. 2 examples from the newspaper was shown that in 2 different case 2 19 year old youth commited suicide because of relationship problem. how then can we as youth manage all these sadness in our lives? for this i think in the Bible Ecclesiastes 3:1-13 have something to say: (you can go read the verses...) these are a few thoughts shared at the meetings

• of course we will feel sad at times because we are human and in the verses King Soloman also mention that there are different times & seasons in life. a time to weep and a time to laugh...
• but we need to avoid being too sad for too long. people get too sad because they think that it is unfair and they are the only one getting it and life is just full of tears and pain. at time of pain they forgot those time of happiness. Ecclesiastes reminds us that all these pain and tears are natural and part of our life on earth, it is not specifically targeting you but everyone will have thier times of sadness. and it also remind us that there are times of joy and laughter too
• these verses in Ecclesiastes also reminf us that htere are many things in life that we cannot control. therefore we should not be so hard upon ourselves or others but rather live the best that we can and leave the rest in God's hand.
• another reason why we are so sad is beccause we let the small things in life filled up our life and become so big. we fail to see the big picture of life that God has given us. we fail to see eternity or the purpose in the long run.
• lastly it will be a waste of time if we continue to stay and dwell in the sad things and miss out on the good things that are coming our way. if we choose to allow or determine ourselves to be sad (which some people do) then we will miss out on the joyful seasons. "a time to mourn and a time to laugh"

hmm maybe we will leave the failure part for another post.... till then.... (sorry forgot to take some picture again this week)