FJWL_02:371
         (Dad:) I know what it's like to be discouraged. I had to battle that quite a bit. You can read about it in the Letters. In fact, I think you should read about it! Go back and read the Letters where I was discouraged, and I just had to hang on to the Lord. It's something that the Enemy fought me with as well. He likes to get our eyes off the Lord and on ourselves, and of course when we start looking at ourselves, there's no end to it! We start going downhill, start sinking, just like Peter did when he started looking at himself instead of looking at Jesus. You've got to look at Jesus! You've got to keep your eyes on Jesus or you'll sink!
         In my case, I got so discouraged that I even turned to the bottle for some inspiration. You've read about that in the Letters too. I know you have a tendency to do the same, but it's not going to help at all. In fact, it's a downward spiral, because when you drink it gets you even more discouraged, because it gets your mind further off of Jesus and on to yourself. I know you don't want to; it's just something that happens when you get discouraged. I was the same way. But I asked the Lord to help me, and He did. And after a while I just refused to touch it any more.
         The Lord sees each difficulty. He sees the trials, He sees the pain, He sees the hard days, and He'll reward you. The Lord knows what you're going through, and it pleases Him when you keep going despite it, when you keep fighting and when you turn to Him. Don't look at yourself. Don't look down. Don't look at the circumstances. Don't look at your own faults and failures. Don't look at the bottle. Just look at Jesus!



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