It is New Year, 2015, and people are focused on being the best person they can be and having peace and joy in their life. However, yesterday morning, Satan came banging on my door, cursing and screaming and providing false witness to my neighbors. Nonetheless, I rebuked Satan, and shut the door in his face, and let him holler and scream like he lost his mind, picked up my Bible and read the word of God. In the New Year, you will find that Satan is going to do the same thing to you, and early on in the year, so you will give up, go astray and follow the path of the ungodly, but you have a choice. You can slam the door in Satan’s face, and let him be exposed to the World for the monster and coward he is.

Satan is trying to convince you to respond so that he can confuse man and tell them you are the problem. However, if Satan can take you down, then he will go after each and every one you love and even those you do not know. Stand strong and resist the ego. Do not fight. Resist, take the higher road and steer clear of that train wreck in the road, so that you are not caught up in the accident because you could lose your life by responding to foolishness or someone you care about might seek revenge and get hurt. Therefore, stay out of trouble. Be a good example. Mastery training is reinforcement of responses that lead to mastery of a threat or control over one’s environment.  Mastery training can occur informally when people learn to cope with challenges. For example, 18-to 22-year-young trainees, on a universal sailing voyage showed marked improvements in their ability to cope with stress.

There is no human institution, however wise and salutary in its natural effects, which the depravity of man cannot pervert to the most pernicious purposes. Men will not be depraved beyond the persuasion of some motive, and self-interest will often be the parent of social obligation. Focus: What causes the college blues? What can be done about school-related depression? During the school year, as many as 78 percent of all college students suffer some symptoms of depression, at any given time, for 16 to 30 percent of the student population is depressed. Why do so many students get sad? To be depriving themselves of the advantage of other eyes and other judgments might be an evil even beyond the loss of a present pleasure. Various problems contribute to depressive feelings.

Here are some of the most common: Stress from college work and pressures to choose a career can leave students feeling that they are missing out on fun or that all their hard work is meaningless. People who seem to enjoy their ill temper have a way of keeping it in fine condition by inflicting privations on themselves. Isolation and alienation are common when students leave their support groups behind. In the past, family, a circle of high school friends, and often a boyfriend or girlfriend could be counted on for support an encouragement. It is not a denial of anything to have been always without it, and what Troy had never enjoyed he did not miss; but, being fully conscious that what sober people missed he enjoyed, his capacity, though really less, seemed greater than theirs.

Problems with studying and grades frequently trigger depression. Many students start college with high aspirations and little prior experience with failure. At the same time, many lack basic skills necessary for academic success. Despair will drive to anything a man whose sense of shame is stronger than that of guilt. Another common problem is the breakup of an intimate relationship, either with a former boyfriend or girlfriend or with a newly formed college romance. A man in public life expects to be sneered at—it is the fault of his elevated situation, and not himself. Students who find it difficult to live up to their idealized images of themselves are especially prone to depression.  Even the best description of a person falls so short of the reality. And added danger is that depressed students are more likely to abuse alcohol, which is a depressant. How shall a man, who is desperate, be prudent and circumspect?

In a survey, college students reported that they were depressed from one to two times a month. These episodes lasted from a few hours to several days. Attempts at description are stupid: who can all at once describe a human being? Even when he is presented to us, we only begin that knowledge of his appearance, which must be completed by innumerable impressions under differing circumstances. We recognize the alphabet; we are not sure of the language. Most people know, obviously enough, when they are down.

You may want to assume that more than minor fluctuation in mood is involved when five conditions exist:  You have a constantly negative opinion of yourself; desperate men really cannot be dainty. You engage in frequent self-criticism and self-blame; the mind that sinks under its suffering does not by that conduct sake off its burden. You place negative interpretations on events that usually would not bother you; despair will drive to anything a man whose sense of shame is stronger than that of guilt. The future looks bleak and negative; we decline great pursuits not from contempt, but from despair. You feel that your responsibilities are overwhelming; what despotism is so black as one the mind cannot challenge?

Despair made fear valiant, and revenge gave shame countenance. If you do not do well on a test, or a class assignment, how do you react? Despair is perfectly compatible with a good dinner. If you see it as a small, isolated setback, you probably will not feel too bad. Despair gives courage. However, if you feel like you are going to die, depression may follow. Students who strongly link everyday events to long-term goals (such as a successful career or high income) tend to overact common disappointments, which happen every day.

No human condition should inspire one with absolute despair. It is the nature of despair to blind us to all means of safety, however easy and apparent they may be.  What does the preceding tell us about the college blues? Vain is their pain who labor in despair. I am truly blessed to wake up every morning, dark and early, to do something that I love; there is nothing better than that. Everything is worth it—the hard work, the times when you are tired, the times when you are a bit sad. In the end, it is all worth it because it really makes me happy. I would not trade it for anything else in the World. I have good friends, a beautiful family, and I have a career. I thank God for these blessings every single chance I get.

Absolute despair is the first step towards the cure of love.  The implications that it is important to take daily tasks one step at a time and chip away at them. The World is before you; and it is most probable that as you enter it, so it will receive you. Trust in nothing, but in Providence and your own efforts. Never separate the two, like the heathen waggoner; and how does this World use you? Pretty much as usual, like a football. That way, you are less likely to feel incredulous, abandoned, or despondent. You are a trophy wanting to be admired. When you feel lost, make a daily schedule for yourself, and try to schedule activities to full up every hour of the day.

Even if you do not plan on going out, shower, brush your teeth and do your hair, it is acceptable to wear sweat pants and a tee shirt. You do not have to look like a fashion model every day. It is best to star with easy activities and progress to more difficult tasks.  Not even the suicide expires an instant before the period marked out by one’s destiny. Check off each item as you complete them. That way, you will begin to break the self-defeating cycle of feeling helpless and falling further behind. (Depressed students spend much of their time sleeping.) No one knocks oneself down; if one’s destiny knocks one down, your destiny must pick you back up again. However, if you are lacking skills needed for success in college, ask for help in getting them. Do not remain helpless.

There is a destiny in war, to which a brave angel knows how to submit; with the same courage that she faces her foes. Destiny is absolute, and influencing every event through the life of human. When most one thinks one is pursuing one’s own will, one merely fulfills that of destiny. Human beings are in all cases the creatures of predicament. They are involuntary agents in the grand drama, which leads them to their destiny. Attacks of the college blues are common and should be distinguished from more intense cases of depression. Severe depression is a serious problem that can lead to suicide or a major emotional impairment. In such cases, it would be wise to seek professional help. Bouts of the college blues are closely related to stressful events. Learning to manage college work and to challenge self-critical thinking can help alleviate mild school-related depression.

Will you tell me of a fate, of a destiny, willing you to become base?—pre-ordaining your weakness and guilt? Impossible! First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own unlovely desires. They will says, “Where is this coming he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”  Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. With her the kings of the Earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.  Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten hours.

The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. This title was written on her forehead: Mystery Babylon the great, the mother of prostitutes, and of the abominations of the Earth.  I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.

When I saw her, I was greatly astonished. Then the angel said to me: “Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast she rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns. The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. The inhabitants of the Earth, whose names have not been written in the book of life, from the creation of the World, will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come.  In other words, if you think this is bad, keep acting ugly and you will be sent somewhere that makes war stricken lands look like Heaven. Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. A certain kind of good fortune generally attends self-made men to the last.