When things are going badly in our lives it’s easy to develop tunnel vision with a focus on the negative aspects of the life we have. I’ve found that adversity can be a powerful stimulant for positive change, even if I wasn’t looking for changes at the time.
I’m thankful for relationships that didn’t work out. Those relationships helped me discover what really makes me happy. Because of those relationships, I’m married to the man I didn’t know I was waiting for all my life.
I’m thankful for the annoyances of sags, bags, wrinkles and other things that come with aging. There are many women who don’t have that option, not if they want to stay in the type of relationship built upon physical beauty and the youthful look. While I don’t object to plastic surgery under the right conditions, it won’t keep a wife forever young. How sad to have gone under the knife regularly yet still be traded for a younger trophy wife.
I’m thankful to have been born when I was and where I was and to whom I was. I didn’t have a choice as to my parents nor the circumstances of my birth. I got lucky. But for the Grace of God I could have been born in any number of third world countries where women have no value or where they have limited opportunities and very little, if any, freedom.
I wasn’t born into a wealthy family. Actually, I think we were positioned on one of the lower rungs of the middle class ladder, a fact that caused my mother much grief since she did base success in life on money and possessions. Providing a counterpoint to my mother’s materialistic view, my father was an extremely hard working man and excellent role model who gave my brothers and me the type of guidance that money can’t buy.
It isn’t just the place of birth which could have limited my choices but the manner of birth. A picture sticks in my mind of an infant born without arms and legs and I wonder how that child will ever have a chance for happiness. His choices, at least those I can think of, are gone, regardless of how intelligent he may be. He’s only one of numerous children born with handicaps that will limit, or severely limit, their choices throughout life.
I am thankful for everything I have even if some of it came with a lot of anguish. If I am ever tempted to complain about my life, I focus on the life I might have had if God hadn’t been so generous on the day I was placed into this world.
My life isn’t always perfect, but it’s mine and it comes with freedom and choices. How about yours? Have you ever given thought to the life you might have had if you were born under less positive circumstances?