In a little flip-chart book of sayings that my mother gave me for my birthday, I opened to this one the other day. It's penned by that over-productive writer, Anonymous. I've read many things written by this author and while some of them have been very good, others have lacked meaning. There have been times I've read something they've written and thought to myself, "Wow, if I'd written that, I wouldn't want to claim it!"
But this was a worthwhile offering: If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want.
You may, like me, have to read that statement a couple of times before the truth of it starts to sink in. None of us get everything we want, but how fortunate we are that we aren't given all the things we don't want. Cancer, death of a spouse or child, a house fire. We can immediately think of those things we don't ever want to have to deal with, though we all know of people that have.
It also made me ponder all those things I thought I wanted, didn't get, and then in hindsight was so grateful that I didn't get them. That boy I had a crush on in high school that turned out to be of a faith that was totally incompatible with mine. I remember after a series of miscarriages telling the Lord, "I just want a baby. Any baby. I'll even take one with all kinds of problems." And then he gave me Christina, a healthy, bright child who brought me nothing but joy.
What about you? I'd love to hear about things you thought you wanted and didn't get, or what things you didn't want and didn't get. Drop me a line!
