When it rains it pours!
I don’t think any of us are exempt from saying this a time or two in our life when we have experienced a challenge that doesn’t just end with one challenge, but there are several that follow! That is what I have experienced so far this year.
Change has been a consistent pattern in 2023. Although most of the changes have been very good and welcome, sometimes the journey has contained events that have left me feeling overwhelmed and hurt.
Here are a few of the situations that have happened in the last few months:
I sold my part of a window covering business this year and am focusing on Choose Ministry full-time.
My mom moved from Florida to Minnesota and then to Iowa (whew). Even though moving isn’t a lot of fun, we are so excited to have her closer.
We had quite an ice and snow storm this past month. My husband was stepping off the snow blower, slipped, and severed his hamstring. Recovery from this type of injury is very slow, leaving us no choice but to postpone a long-awaited anniversary trip. Cue the tears!
When Jill and I sit down to pick out a word we want to focus on each week during the year, the process feels pretty random. When this week’s word was acceptance and I was the one scheduled to write the blog, I realized that random is only how I define our process. Random doesn’t exist in God’s vocabulary. It was the perfect word for me to focus on.
There is more to each of these situations than just what is stated above; and each situation involves a journey that contains blessings, but also hardship. What I see as exciting may fill someone else with sorrow. What I see as the right way to handle a situation someone else may see as wrong.
My personality is one that wants to keep peace, do things correctly, and help in any way I can. So when all of a sudden I am faced with anger, frustration, and opposition from others, I fall apart.
As I have reflected on acceptance this week, I have learned that when changes happen in life, in particular difficult changes that I have not chosen, I believe God asks me for my acceptance, trust, and faith. It is human nature to want to understand why. It seems like a basic human right to know and understand, but life doesn’t always work that way.
Life works so much better when we choose acceptance, trust and faith.
I love the Serenity Prayer:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next.
This prayer is a beautiful reminder to surrender it all to Him and trust that He will make things right according to His purpose, not mine.
Serenity comes from accepting. Peace comes from accepting.
And about that rain I talked about, I'm reminded by Dolly Parton that "If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain."
Are you feeling the rain right now, my friend? Are you struggling with things that are out of your control?
What do you need to surrender to Him and choose to accept according to His purpose?
I pray you will find the serenity that comes from acceptance!
With love and joy,
Laura