"You can go anywhere if you simply go one step at a time."
As I sit locked away in my room, in the stillness of this moment, the only thing I can hear is the pinging of rain drops against my window. I've recently found that one of the simplest blessings is hiding myself from this broken world so that I can become lost in my own imperfect life. And I use "imperfect" not to highlight my life's deficiencies, but to emphasize the sweet reality that I'm not living the life I thought I would.
There have been many stepping stones along the path that has brought me here. Some were insignificant, more like pebbles that just needed swept to the side. Others were more troublesome that required intense concentration just to maintain my balance. And I've been lucky enough to come across those perfect, oblong-shaped stones that conform to the soles of my feet, supporting my weight - those stones that somehow give me the extra push I need to move on to the next phase in my life.
I read long ago that God knows the plans he has for me...plans for prosperity, plans for a future. While I don't expect to rid my life of the harshness and brutality it sometimes offers, I can rest in the knowledge that my life is moving toward the future he has for me. And every so often, when my feet do land on those unstable and unpredictable steps, I will remember to look for the precious oblong stones that support my very being.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
A life lesson from a different time.
I've heard some pretty good advice recently. It didn't come from a self-help book, a popular television host, or even the ever-truthful pages of Cosmo. Instead, it came from my ailing eighty-one year old grandfather.
It was a long day at work, and all I really wanted to do was go straight home, curl up with the blankets and watch a movie. Instead I met my relatives in my grandfather's hospital room, where the conversation quickly turned to old memories.
My grandmother had passed nearly three years before, and since then, my grandfather has let certain details slip that I'm sure my grandmother wouldn't have wanted many to know. For example, they have twelve children. Now, this might sound excessive, but when you learn that your grandmother never wore pajamas to bed, it makes more sense. However, my grandfather also speaks highly and admirably of my grandmother; theirs was a true love that lasted the changing decades.
As we sat reminiscing, my grandfather's raspy voice -though the softest- rang out above the rest, "Elsie and I never fought. We had discussions, but we never fought. It was because I always treated her as a lover first...and a wife second." My grandfather learned early on something that other men never seem to grasp: just because you're married doesn't mean you stop courting the woman you love. She is an ever-changing creature, and to presume that your job is done once she has a ring, is a very, very grave assumption.
That generation really does know what they're talking about. But their advice only works if we would pause a moment to listen.
- Grace falls down like rain on this girl.
It was a long day at work, and all I really wanted to do was go straight home, curl up with the blankets and watch a movie. Instead I met my relatives in my grandfather's hospital room, where the conversation quickly turned to old memories.
My grandmother had passed nearly three years before, and since then, my grandfather has let certain details slip that I'm sure my grandmother wouldn't have wanted many to know. For example, they have twelve children. Now, this might sound excessive, but when you learn that your grandmother never wore pajamas to bed, it makes more sense. However, my grandfather also speaks highly and admirably of my grandmother; theirs was a true love that lasted the changing decades.
As we sat reminiscing, my grandfather's raspy voice -though the softest- rang out above the rest, "Elsie and I never fought. We had discussions, but we never fought. It was because I always treated her as a lover first...and a wife second." My grandfather learned early on something that other men never seem to grasp: just because you're married doesn't mean you stop courting the woman you love. She is an ever-changing creature, and to presume that your job is done once she has a ring, is a very, very grave assumption.
That generation really does know what they're talking about. But their advice only works if we would pause a moment to listen.
- Grace falls down like rain on this girl.
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