Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: A rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.”
Character. It IS what defines us. When you are faced with the ridiculousness that life throws at us, how to you respond…??? Do you throw a tantrum, shake your fists at the heavens, and curse your bad luck..??? Or do you take it in stride, recognize it as Gods plan for you, and put it in your nice tidy book of “lessons learned.”
After losing a child, my Aunt gave me this quote in the inside of a condolence card. It read, “You can’t be brave, if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you.” I cut that out, laminated it, and to this day is still posted on my fridge. It has become my mantra.
I personally, have found that a sense of humor is one of the greatest gifts that we can possess. Why not laugh when we miss that flight??? We were blessed with the gifts to afford that ticket, to take the time off work, and the ability to travel to places to be with loved ones. In the whole scheme of things, how relevant is this missed connection…??? Everything. happens. for. a reason. Gods plan is perfect. We are not always made aware of the whys of his path for many, many years later, but it most definitely WILL be revealed to us someday.
For so long, I had hopes for someday buying our “dream home”, one we had in the works for over 10 years. I was so focused and driven on owning this home, that I was blinded to the potential risks this house held. My mother walked through the house with me and said, “Honey, I think this place needs a lot of work.” I reassured her that it was perfect and amazing and it would all work out. I listened to no one, ignoring the urgings in my gut that maybe this really was not our “dream home.” I think when God sees that we are ignoring his path for us, he sometimes has to pull out the big dogs. We are so gah-gah on what WE think we want, and he has to reel that sh*t in. This came in an almost literal slap up side the head, huge amounts of ugly crying, and then, finally, the peace of his path being revealed to us. Our dream home then became something completely different, but you know what, it’s perfect.
If you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you, the small, insignificant, annoying tangled Christmas tree lights become a ginormous issue. Lets appreciate the unfortunate lessons life has thrown at us and turn them into stepping stones, leading us to growth and preparing us for the bigger, possibly more rocky path that lies beyond that lost 15 year old suitcase with the bad wheel and zipper that never cooperates without the use of several 4-letter words.
My mom always told me, “Attitude is everything.” Absolutely was she right. Lets use our not so perfect circumstances and rotten apples that are thrown at us to define our character in a positive manner. It’s sometimes hard to see the path when its clouded by our own ideas of what we think it should be. That’s when we need to take a step back, trust the process, and let Gods will be done.