When The Rubber Meets The Road

The other day I saw this quote “May your life preach more loudly than your lips.” by William Ellery Channing. It made me think about how my life is perceived by others, especially when I’m walking through some kind of a challenge, walking through a valley so to speak. The last two and half weeks on the couch weren’t some of my best moments. I’d like to be able to say that I was sweet tempered, patient, and maintained a very positive attitude day in and day out, but that just isn’t the case. However, after seeing that quote I did feel convicted.

It’s so easy to drop catch phrases when trying to comfort friends and family when life’s road gets rough. It’s another thing to live those words when things turn personal. I think back on all the times I’ve advised others to “trust the Lord and His timing” or “make the most of this time to do something you might not otherwise have done” or “it’s up to you whether or not you have a good day or a bad day, you decide which way it’s going to be” (my kids heard that one a lot). As one day on the couch stretched into another, I lost motivation to really do anything productive, wondered what in the world the Lord was trying to teach me with all this down time, and mostly didn’t feel like making the right decisions regarding my attitude. Thankfully, Channing’s nine little words pushed me to reconsider living my own advice to others and start making my couch moments matter.

I’m happy to say that I do believe God has a plan and purpose for my life, and his timing is perfect. I have had some remarkable time to visit with friends (even get to know some much better for having the extra moments together) and been blessed to catch up on some correspondence to others who are facing far worse challenges than I am. As far as using the time to do something productive, thanks to our dear friend Chuck Wasson, I have enjoyed a great deal of time on a new application that he introduced to me for my I Pad, and it looks like the illustrations for another one of my children’s books are almost ready to put into print form. Perhaps most importantly, I can honestly say that attitude is everything when it comes to outlook and enjoying peace and joy each day, I’m glad that I turned mine around.

The bottom line is I’m thankful for the opportunity for personal growth this broken foot has afforded. I feel like I’ve learned a valuable lesson and next time I experience a challenging time (and I know I will) I will respond better. Hopefully in the future when the rubber meets the road, I will quickly demonstrate my faith in the hard places. For now though, I’m glad my days in community theater are over, I don’t think I could handle anyone telling me “to break a leg!”

I’ll let you know when the book is available!

This boot was made for walking . . . and that's just what I'll do!