WW: A problem-free life.

A few months ago my mother-in-law gave me a 365 Day Devotional, which earlier this week, started with this:

"GIVE UP THE ILLUSION that you deserve a problem-free life."

I literally laughed out loud when I read it. First of all, it's blunt, right? I feel like it's screaming, GET OVER YOURSELF! And then as I re-read the line I felt a sense of...relief. Odd, maybe- but it kind of made me feel better just hearing that problems should be expected, and to think otherwise is just not realistic. Delusional, in fact.

We Type A personalities easily get caught up with striving for perfection and control. But becoming a parent threw that whole idea out the window, in fact it's harder and harder to maintain control, if I ever even had it. Problems start to creep in and sometimes, okay often, I get mad. I'm sure you've been there personally and professionally, when something happens in your life or to a loved one that you feel is unfair or not deserved. But the reality is that we're not promised only good moments or just happy times.

Hearing this one little phrase this week somehow took a burden off of my shoulders. A little voice said, get over it Lauren! You're going to have problems, like, FOREVER. We can't control that, but we can control how we respond to them. And ultimately it's not the problem that defines us, but the responses that we have to whatever comes our way. What a relief.

And what an opportunity to build character and teach my son that we might not always have the right circumstances, but we can always choose the right response.

After all "Life is "10% about what happens to you, and 90% about how you react to it." -Charles R. Swindoll.

[caption id="attachment_959" align="aligncenter" width="490"] Because he's cute.[/caption]