Hope

Recently I requested my fans on Facebook to challenge me with writing topics. This one is for Becky Houselog...

hope, verb
​: to cherish a desire with anticipation : to want something to happen or be true*

This was a deep topic. I wasn't sure what I would write regarding hope and holding on to it. Right now there are a lot of reasons that people are holding on to hope. I found the definition in Webster's dictionary to be interesting "to want something to happen or be true". By that definition, I feel like I am hoping every day. And I believe that is a really good thing. A world without hope would be a world that accepts everything as it is always. That would be an awful place to live.
Hope is what allows us to fight past a "few months to live" diagnosis. 
Hope is what allows us to believe there are other options than divorce when a marriage gets rocky. 
Hope is what helps us smile when we think of loved ones that have died and plan to see again on the other side.
For me, faith and hope are intertwined. I've had a hopeless darkness wash over my life. It was not pretty. I did not have hope. I did not want to continue on because every day felt meaningless. What was the point of continuing the same thing over and over until I die? 
During this dark time, I talked to God. I didn't always feel like He was listening, I didn't always feel like He cared but I hoped. 
Holding on to that hope is why I am here today. Because I believed that even if there was only one person that I encouraged, one person that I inspired, one person that I laughed with, cried with, or rejoiced with then life was worth living. 
There may not always be a cure but that doesn't mean we cannot hope for it.
There may not always be justice but that doesn't mean we can't hope for it.
There may not be immortality here on earth but that does not mean we cannot hope to see it in Heaven.

Hope is what every one of us needs. It is the light shining bright in a dark world full of despair. Do not lose hope, hold tight to it.
​-Nicole Donoho

"So we do not give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day. We have small troubles for a while now, but they are helping us gain an eternal glory that is much greater than the troubles. We set our eyes not on what we see but on what we cannot see. What we see will last only a short time, but what we cannot see will last forever." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Nicole Donoho, owner of Teddyfly LLC, enjoys writing stories for all ages. She currently lives in Northwest Arkansas where she takes in the beauty of the Natural State with her husband, Jacob, and their three sons-Elijah, Josiah, and Solomon.

*​https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hope