Hope For the Future

"Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:21-23

What does hope mean to you? To me, having hope is to want an outcome that makes your life better in some way. Hope not only can help make a tough situation more bearable, but also can eventually improve your life because envisioning a better future motivates you to take the steps to make it happen. Everyone hopes for something. Hope and trust work together. They go hand and hand. Living without hope and trust isn't truly living.

When life brings about challenges, it can be easy to lose hope. Mark says that when he was at the height of his drinking, he lost all hope. He couldn't envision a future, much less a better future. When Mark admitted his alcoholism to me and went to rehab, I worked hard not to lose hope. But I must admit, there were many days that I was completely hopeless. I was so stuck on the past that I too, couldn't envision much of a future. Within days of Mark entering rehab, he started to regain his hope. He said that he could clearly see his future and he knew what he wanted in life for the first time in years. His positivity, unconditional love, and constant encouragement helped me to regain hope, along with leaning on God's word. I have shared the following bible verse several times before and it means more to me than ever as this is a verse I constantly would go back to. Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Even when neither Mark nor I had hope and could not see our future, the Lord had plans for us. He gave us hope and He has given us a future.

Mark, Paislee , Cleone, me

Mark gave me (us) a trip to Maui, Hawaii for our anniversary in June. The trip is set for January 2022. I had a hard time making plans for this trip at first. I was still struggling with hopelessness, depression, and anxiety. I didn't know if I should make plans because "what if Mark would relapse? What if we weren't in a good place in our marriage in January?" I finally opened up to Mark about this a few months ago. I admitted I was terrified to plan for anything because I was scared to think of the future. I was terrified of the unknown. We talked for a long time about what was holding me back emotionally. I came back to Jeremiah 29:11. Mark reminded me that I can't live my life in fear. He reminded me that I must live. He reminded me that living life without hope, faith, and trust isn't truly living. This is something that I had to remind Mark of prior to him going to rehab and now the tables were turned, and Mark returned the advice to me.

Fast forward a few months and I have done a lot of planning for Hawaii. I am excited to go. We are excited to go. I have stopped living in fear of the unknown and I have started to live. I do my best to remain positive and portray this positivity to others. Mark and I both continue to try and better ourselves individually and we try to better our marriage. We both must work hard on this every day, and we know this. We don't ever want to lose sight of each other or our marriage again. We don't ever want to lose hope again. To do this, we know that we must lean on God and each other. We must always remain open and honest no matter what. We are not perfect, but we have found a way to make us work and we couldn't be happier. We both feel our marriage is stronger, more loving, more affectionate, and Godlier than ever.

If you have lost hope. We are here to tell you that hope is not lost. It can be found again. You must find yourself and once you do that, you can regain hope. God never loses hope in you. He always has your back and he always believes in you, even when you don't believe in yourself. Lean on Him, and he will see you through. You can regain hope. Never give up!

"If you only carry one thing through your entire life, let it be hope. Let it be hope that better things are always ahead. Let it be hope that you can get through even the toughest of times. Let it be hope that you are stronger than any challenge that comes your way. let it be hope that you are exactly where you are meant to be right now, and that you are on the path to where you are meant to be...Because during these times, hope will be the very thing that carries you through" (Nikki Banas).

Paislee says, "Congratulations Grandpa Mark on 8 months of sobriety!"