by Cheryl Engelke

Created on: March 12, 2007   Last Updated: May 11, 2007

My husband makes fun of me. I run into walls. He thinks it's cute. My daughter inherited that from me. At the park, in the yard, or just running through the living room, I used to sit back and watch my daughter just ... run. It was this crazy,lopsided, topsy-turvey, you're almost sure she's gonna fall over run. I have the same run. I like to think of it as a good thing. It's one of those no matter how many times you fall down or run into something you keep going runs. She and I both can have plenty of room and still walk through a doorway and run right into the wall. This is called FOCUS. I think the biggest reason people fail today or fall into depression is for two reasons. #1, they lose their focus and take their eyes off the goal. #2, They let themselves become victims of life.

My daughter's run, especially when she was younger, was so focused on where she was going or what she was trying to get to, it didn't matter if she fell down or had to stop to tie her shoe (if she actually bothered to stop to tie it). What mattered was where her focus was. If her eyes stayed on what she wanted, she would get there no matter the cost. We as a human race have lost that focus. Too many times, life will throw us a curve ball; illness, family or friends interfering, loss of patience, anger, distrust, jealousy, fear... the list goes on. And we lose or focus. We become not only physically tired, but emotionally and mentally tired. It's frustrating. It's exhausting. It's maddening. It's anything and everything life can throw at us to make us lose our focus and then we are drowning in a sea of self doubt or fears or whatever it takes for us to lose our focus.

I'm sure most, people have heard about the story of Jesus walking on the water. When the disciples saw Him, He called out to Peter to come join him. Peter then proceeded to climb out of the boat and walk on water towards Jesus. Now mind you, there are storm clouds rolling and bone chilling rain pouring and winds howling all around him, but Peter sees Jesus. He is looking Jesus in the eye, focused on his goal, reaching out to Jesus, who is reaching out to him. Who knows what happened next...perhaps the winds shifted, perhaps Peter just took his eyes off Jesus for a split second, perhaps he was thinking about what he would have for dinner that night. Whatever it was, Peter lost his focus. he tool his eyes off the goal and all he saw were the obstacles in his way. He started to lose his faith and then started sinking like

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