A few weeks ago, I was reminded through experience of the phrase "Every cloud has a silver lining"1. I had to go to a grocery store in another town to buy some lamb, which is not available in my town. I got dressed to go, got my son ready, made sure I had snacks and a sippie cup, buckled him into his car seat, and got in the car. It wouldn't start. Very annoyed, I got out, unbuckled him, brought him back inside, took off our coats, and found other things to do. Later that afternoon when my husband came home for lunch I took his truck to go run my errand. As I switched from diaper bag to purse, I discovered something: my wallet had not been in my diaper bag like I'd thought it was. If I had been able to go to the store earlier as planned, I would have been there without any way to pay for my purchases!
Though I'd been very annoyed that my car wouldn't start, that misfortune saved me from even greater annoyance and misfortune. It made me wonder what things we face daily that annoy us that actually serve to keep us from experiencing something worse.
It is definitely in my nature to get annoyed first and not think what good could come from what I'm experiencing, but I'm starting to think I need to try to be more deliberate to try to look at this irritations from another viewpoint and train myself to recognize the good to come out of them.
1I thought there was a verse somewhere in the Bible that this phrase evolved from, but I can't find it. If anyone knows, please let me know!
1 comment:
Yep, that's happened to me so many times before. I shouldn't get so angry, but I just light up like a fuse!
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