Sitting all gathered around the kitchen table my brother in law recounts a lesson he learned in his church Marriage and Family class.
A new way looking at life. His instructor emphasized that it is not a situation that effects us, its our reaction to the situation. How we choose to react can change everything.
When someone cuts us off in traffic we are immediately angered. Wonder how they dare to do that to us. Do we ever stop to think that maybe they are on their way to somewhere more important? Do they have a sick child they are hurrying to get to? Are they late for an appointment? Those thoughts never cross our minds. (at least not for most of us.)
Changing the way we react to situations can have a great impact on our daily lives and our happiness.
In one situation, the counselor, spoke about a man who would come home every day to a home that looked like it had be ransacked. Toys, clothes, food, everywhere. He remembered being angry with his wife who was at home during the day. “What had she done all day?” He found himself thinking. After this lesson he made the resolution to change his attitude toward unfavorable situations.
When he arrived home the next day to find the house in the same order he thought to himself, “WOW, my kids had fun today.”
And his whole attitude changed as he looked around at all the projects they had completed throughout the day.
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Since that day I have tried. Tried very hard to change my thinking on the situations in my life I would normally get upset about. It’s not easy. That’s for sure. Instead of automatically jumping to the worst conclusion, I try another route. Sure, instinct has me go there first, but I try to back up and start over again.
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Now as I walk up the stairs for the first time every evening Aaron shouts up from the kitchen “Beebza had lots of fun today.”
And suddenly nothing else matters.
When parents would pick up their kids from school, usually the first thing they would do is complain about how dirty the kids were and I would always say, " The dirtier the are, the more fun they had at school." The parents usually didn't have much to say after that :)
That is so great! I need to do better at this – choosing to react in a more positive way in various aspects of my life. Thanks Ryley, for the reminder!
I lesson I surely need to learn!!
What a great way of looking at things! I never realized how much fun we have at our house!
Sheri