Gloom and Doom?

As of late, everything on TV, the radio, in newspapers, etc. seems to be some form of gloom and doom. Gas prices are suffocating our ability to travel and in a domino effect are creating horrendous problems across the boards when it comes to the shipping/transporting of anything, but especially food products. There's flooding, earthquakes and tornadoes all over the world happening at what would seem to be as often as we blink our eyes. Then there's the politics of global warming, politics in general and of course the Iraq debacle and whether we should stay, leave or whether we should have gone there in the first place -but I won't touch those topics with a 50 ft. pole, I wouldn't want to get on any one's bad side in the midst of all this apparent chaos.

In thinking about the current state of this nation and the world in general, one could be easily depressed if they were to dwell on things. But should we be? I don't think so. I think we all buy into so much of the media hype that it almost puts us into cardiac arrest over certain issues. Are there bad/difficult things happening? Yes, there are. While I don't feel we need to downplay some of the tragic things that happen, I think it's more important to remember that bad things are always happening BUT so are good things. Funny how we rarely look at the good things, but instead focus on the negative in some hope that we can solve the world's problems. Sometimes problems aren't meant to be solved, but to be dealt with as best possible. We're told in the scriptures that the state of the world isn't really going to improve, but worsen over time and while there's nothing wrong with trying to solve some problems, there are others that will just work themselves out in the end.

We need to pick and choose our battles as they say. It's counterproductive to let everything destroy our will to live and to bring us down. So what if I'm unable to go on a huge totally awesome road trip because of the current price of gas or if there's a corn shortage because of horrible flooding or whatever it may be. Are we so helpless that we can't come up with our own personal solutions or deal with things like this? I believe we will be just fine. Let's rid ourselves of the gloom and doom and LIVE our lives!