AHA Fail and Recovery (part 1)

I had an argument with a friend yesterday. I had certain expectations of the day, and when things started to veer away from the presumed path, I got upset. Therefore, I basically started the argument. Instead of accepting how things were, I was preoccupied with how I wanted things to be, and I caused myself stress. A big FAIL in the AHA journey.

This reminds me of a church school story that I remember from long ago. An old woman was told that she would be visited by Jesus. She got very excited and worked very hard to clean her house and make everything perfect for His arrival. One day, there was a knock at the door, and an old beggar man stood before the woman asking for a bit of food. "I can't have you come in," said the woman, "my Savior is coming to visit with me and I can't have you here." She turned him away and continued to clean. The next day, there was another knock and a young child stood at the door, saying she was lost. The woman turned her away as well. A third day, and a third knock. This time a leper, asking for help. The woman closed her door once again. On the fourth day, Jesus came and scolded the woman. "I came to you as a beggar man, as a young child and as a leper, and you did not let me in."

The moral of the story is we need to recognize opportunities that are given to us. The old woman was so focused on Jesus coming, that she didn't see the first three visitors as important. I have a bad habit of being so focused on how I want things to be that I overlook the opportunities to enjoy myself and people around me regardless of the situation. I wasn't going to write about this, but I decided that I need to accept that life is not always rainbows and butterflies and pure happiness. I recognized (albeit too late) the fact that I did not accept the situation as it was, and stressed out myself - and my friend - by being upset that things were not exactly as I wanted them to be. I hope that I can learn from this and be more aware of opportunities to accept and appreciate things as they are.

I'm labeling this post Part 1, because it's early in the day and I hope to have a better AHA moment by the time I go to bed tonight. Keep your eyes open every minute for those Moments of AHA. You never know when you'll find something good.