Week 23-"It Is What It Is"

Today is my mother's birthday which is the same day as Abraham Lincoln's birthday.  My mom passed away in 2000 and so many years have come and gone, but my oldest daughter Jaclyn never fails to text me to say, "Happy Birthday Nana" which is what we called my mom when she became a grandma.  

Nana

Today itself has been a hard day for reasons that I don't need to mention, except to say that I sometimes wonder why certain people come in and out of our lives.  Some are meant to be permanent and want to be and others are like a fleeting star or wish they were anyway even if they are not.  Some make an impact in such a short time that even when they are gone, they will be remembered always.

My new discovery for this blog entry is a book a friend recommended called Count It All Joy by Sherrie Mills Johnson.  I have nearly underlined every paragraph in the book because of her great perspective on learning to accept what is, finding the good in our lives, and being positive.  Having just returned home last night from my daughter Juliann's home, I watched as she demonstrated this way of thinking over and over this past week.  If the kids make a mess, it is what it is, and can be fixed in no time.  If something breaks and can't be fixed, well, it is still what it is.  

The old saying, "Don't cry over spilled milk" is true, but I have a tendency to not see the growth and learning in things that don't always go the way I think they should. Johnson calls these Should Sharks in the book and she teaches how we need to deal with what is and not what we want or think it should be.  

Sometimes life can bring more than spilled milk and it can be very painful, but growth usually follows if we look for it.  In addition, Johnson states that we often create unnecessary pain in how we handle what comes our way.  Today was one of those days I did not handle a bad situation well.  With that said, I will go back to thinking about the people who touch our lives for good or bad, long or short, and use a quote from the book:  "Every one of God's children has a mission in life, and He created you and put you in the situation you are in so that you could best perform your mission.  Like the teddy bears at the mall, you were designed especially for the people in your life.  He put you with the people you could best learn from and, in turn, best help."  Thus, the people that come in and out of our lives are there for a reason.

Today I cried over something that was worse than spilled milk, but it did not make the situation better nor the people involved feel better; in fact, it made it worse.  I can still feel bad or I can learn what I can from today, and do better tomorrow; thus, helping the people I care about as God guides me where I am supposed to be fulfilling my mission He has just for me.  Johnson further states "All our Father in Heaven asks of us is to take care of the moment we are in right now.  He knows we can't change the past, and He knows we can't determine the future. That is His job.  All we are required to do is the right thing right now."  And, if we did not do it well today, we can do better tomorrow with His help.