Why are some people more blessed than others?

[wdwiala]

Since we cannot control whether we receive blessings or not, the real question is, "What are you doing with what you've been given?"

 

[Feralpeg]

I'm about most unblessed unlucky person living right now. Everything I do blows up. I'm sick of hearing look on the bright side of things. Yeah, for once, there ain't no bright side. Nothing that's happened to me in my fault, but it's going to be just about insurmountable to get over. On the contrary, I look at the people who've screwed me over and they're sitting pretty. Where's the fairness in that? On top of that I've got a rare disease that knocks me down every day. Some days I just don't have the energy to get over the next hurdle and sometimes I just don't want to.

So, what's the now? You can sit around and be sad, or you can try to look at the bright side. I know you've heard that a lot and it is very hard. The alternative is really bad!

I'm not trying to be mean. I know you feel bad. I wish there was something that could change it. My daughter feels bad most days. I'd give anything to change that, but there is no magic bullet. Yes, it isn't fair that it happened to you or to her, but it did. So, you can either try to make the best of a bad situation or you can let it make the rest of your life miserable.

There are always good things if you just look for them.

 

[Uuaww]

If you want a case and point of someone who is "blessed" look at Myron Rolle.

Who is Myron Rolle?

Former Florida State Free Safety who gave up a chance to play in the NFL because he was a Rhodes Scholar and decided he wanted to pursue his masters in Medical Anthropology. Oh and he had also received a full ride scholarship to a performing arts college.

Some people are just luckier than ever when it comes to skills. This man is smarter, more athletic and more talented on stage than nearly everyone. He plans on entering the NFL draft after he finishes up at Oxford.

 

[SplashMtnCrew]

I am not lucky, but I am extremely blessed.

 

[TheBigBadWolf]

For everyone experiencing difficulties in their life, I highly reccommend "The Secret" DVD. It helps me focus on what is important in life, and when I am feeling down, I watch it and it always brings life into perspective for me. It will teach you how to attract positive things into your life.

Here is a discussion about "The Secret" here on the Dis. It's truly knowledge that everyone should know. I have bought many copies of the DVD for friends and family members who are going through difficult times. I love "The Secret" and feel blessed to know it. I wish everyone knew The Secret!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1870654

 

[honugirl]

So, what's the now? You can sit around and be sad, or you can try to look at the bright side. I know you've heard that a lot and it is very hard. The alternative is really bad!

I'm not trying to be mean. I know you feel bad. I wish there was something that could change it. My daughter feels bad most days. I'd give anything to change that, but there is no magic bullet. Yes, it isn't fair that it happened to you or to her, but it did. So, you can either try to make the best of a bad situation or you can let it make the rest of your life miserable.

There are always good things if you just look for them.

Thanks Peg! At this point, I'm just going to lay down and hope that someone comes to rescue me. It's all I have left. I've been bitten at and torn apart so badly, I don't have any more resources. If someone comes to save me, great, if not, that's the way the story will end.

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

Being blessed or not blessed is nothing but perspective.

You either look at your life and pull the wisdom and bright points out of it and think, "I'm blessed", or you look at all the bad crap that happens and think "I'm not blessed."

You look at other people and see a tiny sliver of their lives and from that perspective you make the judgement that they're blessed or not blessed.

Again, it's not truth, reality, or religion.

It's perspective.

 

[Feralpeg]

Thanks Peg! At this point, I'm just going to lay down and hope that someone comes to rescue me. It's all I have left. I've been bitten at and torn apart so badly, I don't have any more resources. If someone comes to save me, great, if not, that's the way the story will end.

You break my heart. I wish there was something I could do to help you! Hang in there!

 

[Feralpeg]

Being blessed or not blessed is nothing but perspective.

You either look at your life and pull the wisdom and bright points out of it and think, "I'm blessed", or you look at all the bad crap that happens and think "I'm not blessed."

You look at other people and see a tiny sliver of their lives and from that perspective you make the judgement that they're blessed or not blessed.

Again, it's not truth, reality, or religion.

It's perspective.

Very wise, grassopper!

 

[EMom]

There seems to be no rhyme or reason to who is and isn't blessed/lucky.

On the one hand, I've known a family for over 30 years that is the salt of the earth, give you the shirt off their back, loyal, hard-working, decent to the core, if it's a good quality they have it type of folk. But I swear, that family is cursed. More crap has been shoveled on to them than a whole town ought to have to bear. Every time I hear of one more disaster or tragedy, I say, "Dear lord, how much more can they take?" But they keep their chins up and keep slogging ahead, never giving up. They amaze me. They deserve so much better, but I fear they will never get it.

On the other hand, there's my MIL. I tell DH that she has a silvery-gold diamond filled cloud that follows her around, saving her from disaster. Without going into detail, she is completely self-absorbed and selfish and has never done ANYTHING to help another human being in her entire life. EVER. She did the bare minimum for her kids and was not affectionate or loving. Basically, she is incapable of loving. She has acted totally helpless her entire life as a way to get others to do everything for her. People look at her and see that she is completely inept and will do NOTHING to help herself and so eventually, someone says, "Oh well, I'll do it for her." This has worked like a charm her entire life.

From the time she was a child, people have done everything for her. I'm not exaggerating. She has raised helplessness to an art form. And there are enough people out there who are the "doers" of society that she zeroes in on them and uses them to do her bidding. If I'd sat on my duff my whole life just shrugging my shoulders, I'd be living under a bridge today. But it's been great for her. She found a husband who would never divorce her, who made sure she was left with a ton of money when he died (since he knew she couldn't take care of herself) and once he died, he had trained his sons to assume the caretaker role even though they were only in their 20s. She's mean and hateful to her kids, yet they still take care of her. She has no idea just how lucky she is that people have saved her rear (and gotten her out of messes she has created) her entire life. She just thinks it's what she deserves.

By all rights, the family in the first instance ought to be "blessed." They are wonderful people who help others all the time. But they can't catch a break. My MIL is the dead opposite. She wouldn't spit on her own kids if they were on fire. But MIL always lands on her feet. Nope......There is no way you can figure these things out.

 

[Feralpeg]

There seems to be no rhyme or reason to who is and isn't blessed/lucky.

On the one hand, I've known a family for over 30 years that is the salt of the earth, give you the shirt off their back, loyal, hard-working, decent to the core, if it's a good quality they have it type of folk. But I swear, that family is cursed. More crap has been shoveled on to them than a whole town ought to have to bear. Every time I hear of one more disaster or tragedy, I say, "Dear lord, how much more can they take?" But they keep their chins up and keep slogging ahead, never giving up. They amaze me. They deserve so much better, but I fear they will never get it.

On the other hand, there's my MIL. I tell DH that she has a silvery-gold diamond filled cloud that follows her around, saving her from disaster. Without going into detail, she is completely self-absorbed and selfish and has never done ANYTHING to help another human being in her entire life. EVER. She did the bare minimum for her kids and was not affectionate or loving. Basically, she is incapable of loving. She has acted totally helpless her entire life as a way to get others to do everything for her. People look at her and see that she is completely inept and will do NOTHING to help herself and so eventually, someone says, "Oh well, I'll do it for her." This has worked like a charm her entire life.

From the time she was a child, people have done everything for her. I'm not exaggerating. She has raised helplessness to an art form. And there are enough people out there who are the "doers" of society that she zeroes in on them and uses them to do her bidding. If I'd sat on my duff my whole life just shrugging my shoulders, I'd be living under a bridge today. But it's been great for her. She found a husband who would never divorce her, who made sure she was left with a ton of money when he died (since he knew she couldn't take care of herself) and once he died, he had trained his sons to assume the caretaker role even though they were only in their 20s. She's mean and hateful to her kids, yet they still take care of her. She has no idea just how lucky she is that people have saved her rear (and gotten her out of messes she has created) her entire life. She just thinks it's what she deserves.

By all rights, the family in the first instance ought to be "blessed." They are wonderful people who help others all the time. But they can't catch a break. My MIL is the dead opposite. She wouldn't spit on her own kids if they were on fire. But MIL always lands on her feet. Nope......There is no way you can figure these things out.

I guess it's all a matter of perspective. I think the family you mentioned is very blessed. They sound like they love each other and people care about them. That is a true blessing. Their life sounds hard, but fulfilled.

Your MIL, on the other hand, sounds like a sad, lonely person. She may not want for material things, but what's that worth if no one cares about you?

 

[GoldieSaysMeep]

Well, I'm sure this doesn't apply to all of the people who seem to have everything BUT...Most of the financially "lucky" people I've known seem to always end up tens of thousands of dollars in debt, worrying about foreclosure & repo of their luxury cars.

I'm not too concerned about my lack of luck when I see that.

 

[mickeyboat]

I started a thread about this very issue a while back. OP I get where you are coming from.

I don't think this is the same thing at all to someone viewing a glass as half empty or half full.

I can understand luck - it happens or it doesn't happen. There is no control over it. But "blessed" is different to me because it carries the connotation that whatever good fortune one has is bestowed upon them by a greater power. So then, why does this higher power bestow blessings upon some and not others?

Mrs. Pete says that the higher power does it for reasons that only He knows, but that isn't a very satisfying answer to the only beings to which He gave the power of reason.

I have decided to stop trying to figure it out.

 

[meandmytwogirls]

I don't believe in luck, as I think everything that happens in one's life happens for a specific reason. With that being said why are some people more blessed than others, I agree with prior posters that "blessings" are all about perspective.

For example if we both had a car wreck I may be extremely upset that my car is totalled and won't see it as a blessing. You on the other hand may feel extremely blessed that you weren't injured. It's all about perspective.

 

[meandmytwogirls]

I started a thread about this very issue a while back. OP I get where you are coming from.

I don't think this is the same thing at all to someone viewing a glass as half empty or half full.

I can understand luck - it happens or it doesn't happen. There is no control over it. But "blessed" is different to me because it carries the connotation that whatever good fortune one has is bestowed upon them by a greater power. So then, why does this higher power bestow blessings upon some and not others?

Mrs. Pete says that the higher power does it for reasons that only He knows, but that isn't a very satisfying answer to the only beings to which He gave the power of reason.

I have decided to stop trying to figure it out.

We'll never figure it out, that is where the concept of faith comes into play but that's a whole nother thread there.

 

[moon]

I don't believe in luck, as I think everything that happens in one's life happens for a specific reason. With that being said why are some people more blessed than others, I agree with prior posters that "blessings" are all about perspective.

For example if we both had a car wreck I may be extremely upset that my car is totalled and won't see it as a blessing. You on the other hand may feel extremely blessed that you weren't injured. It's all about perspective.

It may be a matter of perspective in an instance like the one you mentioned, but saying it's all about perspective is too simplistic, IMO.

Say someone is born with an incurable disease in a thirld world country and is raised in poverty by a single parent.

Someone else was born with an able, healthy body and mind, in a developed nation with two loving middle-class or better parents..... How the "it's all a matter of perspective" POV works here?

I just can't see how with the examples above -and there are millions of people born under either of those circumstances- anyone could not see the first example as extremely unfortunate, and the second one as very, very lucky.

It's not all a matter of perspecive.

 

[John VN]

Were those who were only injured in yesterday's train wreck more blessed than those who died but not as blessed as those who suffered no injury? This was because of a higher power?

My response might go poof but I mention this because this is how some of the responses wind up sounding to me.

Same with the All Things Happen For A Reason way of thinking. This too sounds lame to me. Why should anyone on the trains or related family members feel that there was a reason for this terrible crash?

 

[freckles and boo]

Were those who were only injured in yesterday's train wreck more blessed than those who died but not as blessed as those who suffered no injury? This was because of a higher power?

My response might go poof but I mention this because this is how some of the responses wind up sounding to me.

Same with the All Things Happen For A Reason way of thinking. This too sounds lame to me. Why should anyone on the trains or related family members feel that there was a reason for this terrible crash?

I don't buy that line of reasoning, either. If your post goes poof all those that reference God and the Bible should disappear, too. The OP may not have intended this thread to be religious, but it is an inherently religious question for people who feel that God has a hand in the minute details of our lives.

 

[Feralpeg]

Were those who were only injured in yesterday's train wreck more blessed than those who died but not as blessed as those who suffered no injury? This was because of a higher power?

My response might go poof but I mention this because this is how some of the responses wind up sounding to me.

Same with the All Things Happen For A Reason way of thinking. This too sounds lame to me. Why should anyone on the trains or related family members feel that there was a reason for this terrible crash?

Well, you have to feel that there is some sort of grand plan. If you don't buy that then it seems that life is just a giant crap shoot. I'd prefer to think there is someone guiding the plan even though I can't understand it. It just makes me feel more secure.

That train accident was very tragic.

 

[luvsJack]

Seeing yourself as blessed is always a matter of prespective. In a crash such as the one listed, some people, in their grief, may say "it is a blessing that he/she did not suffer". Not saying this is the way everyone should view a death, just saying it is that way for some. Someone even knowing that thier loved one suffered some may say "it is a blessing that he/she died quickly". It is still a matter of prespective.

I was devestated in my father died. I miss him every day. He died suddenly of a heart attack but he had a debilitating lung disease. If he had lived he would have ended up not being able to do the things he loved and he would have suffered greatly. To us, if we had to lose him, it was a blessing that he did not go through that. Of course we would have prefered him to live a long and healthy life but that was not a choice we could make.

Some people, in our rural area, that have no money see themselves as blessed that they can grow their food, others in the same situation see themselves as unlucky because they do not have the money they wish for. It is all in the positive or negative way you look at things.