One of my team mates, Rich Duong, shared a parable during our team meeting the other day about the tools the Devil uses to tend his garden. God has his garden, but the Devil has his as well.  The tools he has are the things designed to bring us down and prevent us from becoming who we are meant to be or from seeing things clearly.  The thing that really caught my ear was the rake of discouragement.  This is said to be the tool the Devil will never give up.  When all other tools in his arsenal fail and an individual keeps pushing forward, the rake of discouragement is the tool that never fails.  This is the tool that stops everyone in their tracks because when we no longer believe in ourselves or our ability to achieve, we stop.  Progress halts and we wallow where we are.  That is the goal of those negative forces: to stop us where we are so we don’t change and we forget our own power, to make it so we don’t share our power to bring progress to the world.   

We need to remember that we are the creator of our own reality.  Don’t believe what is used against us—it’s all perception and we get to choose our beliefs and how we operate here.  Don’t let that voice take us down, we need to remember our self-worth and do what is right for us.  Allow us to take our own power and make our lives easier rather than buying into fear or a system that doesn’t work. The main idea is that we don’t let what is outside influence what we know inside.  Some of the truest advice I have ever heard (even if it took a long time for it to sink in) was that not everything is as it seems.  Pause judgement and belief and interrupt the trained reactions we have when we think we know something.  Even when things seem a bit dark, that is when we need to keep pushing through.  Even if we are tired, keep going and do what we say we are going to do.  That is how we make it happen.  Whether we tend the garden of growth/joy/love/peace or the garden of despair/fear/hate/unrest, the effort is the same—the result is what differs.  Choose the tools we use to cultivate the life we want and step boldly into it with relish and love—we are the only ones who can stop ourselves so don’t let discouragement be the end game.