Life on Earth is filled with lessons, some lessons are more important than others but all lessons have value when we actually learn them.

That's the real problem. Some lessons have to present themselves in our lives over and over, and no matter how many times they come round again we still somehow miss the lesson behind the experience.

If you take a moment to look at your life I'm sure you will find at least one area where you seem to have developed a recurring pattern. Perhaps you tend to date the same sort of person over and over, or perhaps your relationship with a certain person keeps falling into a destructive pattern.

How many times will a man attempt to stick his hand inside of a nest of rattlers before he can expect to be bitten? Most of us would assume that once would do it for any rational person, and most of us do in fact see ourselves as rational people, but even when we find the same outcome over and over we remain committed to the methods we have used in the past.

As we find and examine more and more patterns in our lives we will often find that we have been responding in the same way to the situation each time it arises but we still find a way to believe that this time will be different.

The lessons that are presented to us in our daily lives are there to help us avoid running into the same old negative results, but when we fail to examine those events and find that lesson we can rest assured that the lesson will revisit us in as many forms as it takes to finally get the message across.

What lesson is life trying to teach you?

Madea is a wise woman when it comes to the ways of the world, here she explains her theory of relationships and how to differentiate between those that were meant to last for a season and those that were meant to last forever...

"If somebody wants to walk out of your life, let - them - go!"

"Some people are meant to come into your life for a lifetime, some for only a season and you got to know which is which. And you're always messing up when you mix those seasonal people up with lifetime expectations.

I put everybody that comes into my life in the category of a tree. Some people are like leaves on a tree. When the wind blows, they're over there... wind blow that way they over here... they're unstable. When the seasons change they wither and die, they're gone. That's alright. Most people are like that, they're not there to do anything but take from the tree and give shade every now and then. That's all they can do. But don't get mad at people like that, that's who they are. That's all they were put on this earth to be. A leaf.

Some people are like a branch on that tree. You have to be careful with those branches too, cause they'll fool you. They'll make you think they're a good friend and they're real strong but the minute you step out there on them, they'll break and leave you high and dry.

But if you find 2 or 3 people in your life that's like the roots at the bottom of that tree you are blessed. Those are the kind of people that aren't going nowhere. They aren't worried about being seen, nobody has to know that they know you, they don't have to know what they're doing for you but if those roots weren't there, that tree couldn't live.

A tree could have a hundred million branches but it only takes a few roots down at the bottom to make sure that tree gets everything it needs. When you get some roots, hold on to them but the rest of it... just let it go. Let folks go."

*From the stage play 'Madea Goes to Jail' by Tyler Perry

What are you worried about today? Are you worried about something that happened yesterday? What about something that might happen tomorrow?

Nobody really has a hard time finding something to worry about, looking around at the world today anyone can find worries in abundance.

There are plenty of choices when it comes to things to worry about, but maybe there are some things you haven't thought of, and that too can become a concern.

It wouldn't be so difficult if we could just worry about something and get it over with but worry is a never ending cycle. The more you give in to worry, the more you find to worry about. The more you focus on what is going wrong in life, the more wrong you will find.

I used to be a worrier, I worried about everything to the point of despair but strangely I never seemed to solve one of the problems I was worried about. When we worry, we often convince ourselves that we are doing something constructive about the problem at hand, but worry is destructive by nature.

Worry has never solved a single problem in the history of the world, nor has complaining. It has created plenty of problems, but never solved one. Complaining is usually just a more vocal form of worry, but neither one involved the crucial component required to end the problem - action.

A few years ago I developed a plan of sorts to deal with worry. It began with the serenity prayer.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

When we worry, we must ask ourselves if the power to change the thing we are worried about is within our reach. If we can't change them, then we must move ourselves towards acceptance. We must admit that is is out of our control and worrying isn't going to change that.

What if there is something we can do? Then to relieve our worry we replace it with action. We get out of our own heads, out into the world and we work towards change.

When we learn to tell the difference between what we can and cannot change we actually free ourselves to a great extent.

Yes, there is no shortage of things to worry about in the world today. We can worry about the future of our job, the future of our home, the future of our children but worry will not change any of those things.

Only action has the power to change the world.