#prayforboston

Everything seems to have hit the fan over the past few months.
I mean for me, but not just for me. I've lost a few good friends and a lot of time. There are a lot of people in Boston today/this week who are mourning the loss of friends or family members. People are panicked, and there's a lot of negativity going around the venues of social media.

It's easy, all too easy to lose faith in humanity, but not when you find stuff like this:

This was just what I needed. It helped me to remember that if we focus on the good, it can drown out the bad.

The benefit of the doubt we may have in humanity is that it's not nearly as powerful as the hope we can have in humanity.
#bethegood

Promises

God makes promises, and He keeps them. There's no arguing that. Sometimes it's a little hard to believe though. Like when He promises you the job you want, but nobody hires you for the job you want. Like when He promises health and prosperity to those who keep the commandments, but a friend suddenly has liver failure at the age of 22 and passes away.

God sees fit to try our faith, doesn't He?
Without the trial, how will we ever learn to really trust Him?

The benefit of the doubt is that when God makes a promise, there is no room for doubt.
Doubts aren't (or shouldn't) be big enough to displace the testimony that comes from an answer directly from the Lord, even when He tries our faith.

College

It's easy enough to believe that your college professors are only passionate about their subject matter. When they pile on the homework, papers, research, readings, assignments, evaluations, etc. it's easy to think they only want you to focus on what they have for you to do or what's important to them. I should give more professors the benefit of the doubt.

I talked to my professors about Carmody and how I want to be able to spend time at the hospital. The expected responses were: "Well, don't forget about your classes", "Make sure you can do your readings while you're there", "Are you going to be able to get your homework in on time?", etc.

The responses I got were: "How's your friend doing?", "Don't even worry about your work right now; I'll work with you", "It's not about whether or not I'm okay with you missing my class; you're an adult, and you know where you need to be", "I don't want you to miss your test and fall behind. I understand that things happen though. You do what you've got to do."

Faith in God has been carrying me for quite a while. Faith in humanity gets bolstered day by day. The benefit of the doubt is when that doubt is proved wrong. When I just try to believe in someone else, sometimes doubts will come, but knowing that they can be proven wrong is pretty comforting.