Hello boys and girls. It's the end of another blessed week. Now, some of you may have had a trying week....or a week with disappointments....or you may have felt that you were under enormous pressure about something happening in your life. We never quite understand why, what or how situations come along in our life, that make us happy, sad, confused or just plain annoy us.
What happens in our life, has defining moments that may change the way we feel, put us in a bad mood, or it can turn out to be the best lesson we ever learned. It mostly depends on our perspective. We can choose to be the half-empty or the half-full subject of the scenario.
If we let things get us down....we are getting 'ground down', so to speak. But if we look for the lessons in the situation, we may be able to 'shine' when we do come out the other end of the event. Don't believe Gommy? Let's say you may think that it isn't possible to be happy about losing your job. But perhaps you weren't loving the job you were in. Losing your job enabled you to take the time to think about what would make you happier in your next job. There are many people who have lost their jobs in the latest financial crisis. And you hear of several people who say they found their hearts desire, by going an entirely different way, out of necessity. They had to look in a different direction from the position they lost. And maybe they started making jewelry, or they worked with animals, or went back to school to become a teacher, because they always loved being with children......there are many stories out there that prove that just when you thought your life as you 'thought' you were comfortable with was snatched away.....the most perfect opportunity was placed right under your nose.
Adversity can polish you up and make you stronger. Or you can allow it to grind you down.We never think we can go through something until we are faced with it. There are those of us who have lost children, or a spouse or another loved one and although that grief is not something ANYONE would ever want to face.....there comes a time when you realize that you have to accept 'what is' and be happy for how very blessed you were in having had them in your life. And the experience of those losses, makes you appreciate all you do have in your life and the people you still have, are all the more precious to you.
Here is a story that pretty much sums up how to survive the events in our lives that end up dictating how the rest of our life will be. Enjoy!
Is It Grind or Shine?
Adversity is the grindstone of life. Intended to polish you up, adversity also has the ability to grind you down. The impact and ultimate result depend on what you do with the difficulties that come your way. Consider the phenomenal achievements of people experiencing adversity.
Beethoven composed his greatest works after becoming deaf. Sir Walter Raleigh wrote the History of the World during a thirteen year imprisonment. If Columbus had turned back, no one could have blamed him, considering the constant adversity he endured. Of course, no one would have remembered him either. Abraham Lincoln achieved greatness by his display of wisdom and character during the devastation of the Civil War. Luther translated the Bible while enduring confinement in the Castle of Wartburg. Under a sentence of death and during twenty years in exile, Dante wrote the Divine Comedy. John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress in a Bedford jail.
Finally, consider a more recent example. Mary Groda-Lewis endured sixteen years of illiteracy because of unrecognized dyslexia, was committed to a reformatory on two different occasions, and almost died of a stroke while bearing a child. Committed to going to college, she worked at a variety of odd jobs to save money, graduated with her high school equivalency at eighteen, was named Oregon's outstanding Upward Bound student, and finally entered college. Determined to become a doctor, she faced fifteen medical school rejections until Albany Medical College finally accepted her. In 1984, Dr. Mary Groda-Lewis, at thirty-five, graduated with honors to fulfill her dream.
Adversity - the grindstone of life. Will it grind you down or polish you up?
