Always Look for the Lesson

Lately I've taken a new approach to challenges in my life.

Instead of freaking out when "problems" arise, I look for the lesson.

This is not a new concept - Joe "Mr. Fire" Vitale talks about it, Joseph Murphy talks about it, and I think I even recall Andy Andrews mentioning it. But for some reason, lately it really started to sink in with me.

Good thing it finally did, considering what happened yesterday.

As you probably already know, my family and I are building a new home. Click here to see the short movie.

We hadn't stopped by since Friday, and we really wanted to see whether the kitchen backsplash was put in. Yesterday, we stopped by after spending the day with friends at the Colorado Renaissance Festival. Our toddler was sleeping, so I stayed in the car while my husband did the "see-if-there-is-anything-new" dash.

He came flying out of there, talking a mile a minute. What's up? I asked.

Apparently one of the workers turned on the tap (just a bit) in the master bath and the jack-n-jill bath. The tubs had not overflowed, but there was clearly a leak in the pipe, because my brand new kitchen was flooded.

And to think I was "done" with water damage after moving away from New Orleans onto higher ground.

The wood floors in our kitchen were starting to warp, the island cabinets were soaked, and the ceiling was ruined.

My husband immediately went into "responsibility" mode - turning off hte main water to the house, contacting appropriate people, etc. etc. etc. He was a fury of focused action, while I kept our sleeping sweetie company.

I started to go into my head with all sorts of confusion (have you ever done this?)

"Is this a sign?"
"Why did we attract this?"
"What does this mean?"
"Should we not get this house?"
"Will this mess up our move-in date?"

etc etc etc

Then I realized there must be a lesson and a blessing here.

I had recently started affirming this: "No one can enter my new home unless they are for our highest good."

How could someone who would (hopefully inadvertently) flood my home be for my highest good? I started looking for a blessing.

It took a couple of hours, but I found it.

There is no possibly way we could have found that leak until after we moved in and my daughter took her first bath. What a pain THAT would have been to repair once we had moved in!

Look - they must replace our wood floor, replace the sheetrock in the ceiling and repaint, possibly replace certain cabinets, and (obviously) fix the pipe.

What a hassle that would have been once we had moved in! And it probably would have taken twice as long, too! And I'm sure a paperwork nightmare would have gone along with the whole scene, had we arelady closed on the house.

So I am thankful to whomever left that water running - clearly, they WERE for my highest good.

But if I hadn't found the lesson, I'd still be pissed as hell.

And who would be served by that?

Exactly. NONE.

So here is your QoD:

What's one challenge in your life that you continue to struggle with? Where can you look for the lesson in it? What could you gain by giving up the struggle and finding the lesson? Go for it!