Hello, Friend! How’s everything going with you?

Things are getting better here as I s-l-o-w-l-y recover from a back injury. It’s been quite a journey, but one thing I’m learning is how much I need to slow down. Perhaps this is God’s way of saying, “HEY!! Your life is moving way too fast and you’re missing some really cool things I’ve sent your way!”

Through this challenge, I’ve started noticing lots of little things that make my life beautiful, more beautiful than I think I realized.

I’m grateful for this challenge, which leads me to today’s challenge question.

What Challenge are you grateful for?

Life is all about challenges. For me, challenges are those things that grow us, change us, and make us value life more than we did before.

The challenge I’m most grateful for has to be the challenge of my children not living with me full time and learning how to be a full-time mom on a part-time schedule.

It’s been nearly 8 years now since my children went to live with their dad and I wouldn’t say it’s any easier now than it was when the change first happened. BUT…

I would say through this challenging time I’ve learned a lot about who I am as a person and a mom. Looking back over the last 8 years I see my growth. I can see where I’ve changed the way I think and look at challenges now no matter what that might look like. I now look for what my role is in nearly every circumstance life may throw at me. I don’t always get it right and some things still knock me down, but I’m learning to get up much faster than I used to.

Let’s face it, Life isn’t always rainbows and unicorns.

There are lessons from going through tough stuff. Lessons we can use not only for the challenge we face at the moment but that we can use in any situation or interaction.

Challenges help us learn

Nothing Stays the Same: Life is always going to ebb and flow. Bad days end and new ones begin. What may be right, right now may not seem so right tomorrow. You change just as the sun rises and sets. You aren’t meant to stay exactly the same and challenges help you see where you need to change if you let them. Yes, change hurts and is often uncomfortable, but it is a necessary part of your growth.

“All things must change to something new, to something different.”

   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

 You Get to Decide How You React: You are not always able to control every aspect of your life, although you may try. It’s difficult to realize you are not in control and challenges can throw you into a tailspin. You may try to deny or run away from a challenging situation but you don’t have to. You don’t have to let it break you. You have choices. Thankfully, you get to choose what and how you do absolutely everything. You can choose your reactions and actions to whatever circumstances you find yourself in. It is a choice You get to make. You are in control of how you react.

  “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.”

 Charles Swindoll

New Challenges Mean New Outlooks: When you were a child, you thought like a child. When you were a teen, you thought like a teen. As an adult, you’ve come a long way in how and what you think. You no longer think like a child or a teen and even as an adult, you have the ability to think differently. Sometimes challenges are meant to help you see something in a different way. Challenges are there to show you where your outlook needs adjustment. Challenges are meant to show you where you need to grow in thought and deed. Just as you grew in your thoughts and deeds from child to teenager, the challenges you face now are meant to change how or what you are thinking.

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”

 Wayne W. Dyer

You’re Stronger Than You Think: You may not always feel strong in the eye of the storm, but you are. When new challenges pop up they seem to zap everything you thought you knew. Sometimes challenges feel like a hurricane, wave after wave of things going wrong and nothing going right. Sometimes you wonder how you’re ever going to get through.  You have already made it through so many challenging situations, each one you took on and made it through. It doesn’t matter how you made it, you just did. That shows how strong you are. You didn’t give up. You didn’t quit. It’s hard to remember how strong you are in that storm you’re in, but looking at all you have already come through will remind you just how strong you are.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.”

 Eleanor Roosevelt

Whatever challenges you may face, you can weather the storm and make it to a better you.

Tell me, what challenge are grateful for?

Robyn