This week, I had the privilege of celebrating my 20th anniversary with the love of my life. I’ve been blessed for two decades to be married to a person whose character is marked by integrity, authenticity, sincerity, and wisdom. I am thankful she is my wife and best friend! Here is a snapshot of the type of insight she brings to my life. I pray it blesses you as you read.
While driving home after a recent family weekend adventure at Lake Michigan, we spotted two vehicles on the shoulder of the opposite lanes of the highway. Two men were feverishly working on one of the cars, fixing a tire. Feeling empathy for the guy whose car had a flat, I said, “bummer!” My wife quickly responded, “I think it’s cool-another driver stopping to help out like that.”
Angela’s words immediately challenged me to see things from a different vantage point.
While we’ll never know the specifics of the situation, we do know that two guys were working together to fix a car along the road. Perhaps, as my wife assumed, one car got a flat and a kind driver stopped to help. Or, it could have been a friend who was called on the phone who came to aid a buddy. Or it may have been a caravan and when one car popped a tire, they had a car behind them to help them out. Whatever the case, the individual who needed to replace their tire had an ally, which is always welcome during high-stress moments.
My wife’s perspective challenged me. Where I saw the downside of life: a troubling situation, Angela saw the best of humanity: a friend helping a friend or a stranger lending a helping hand to someone in need. It brought to mind Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, where an unlikely stranger became a friend to a man badly in need of help (Luke 10:25-37).
What makes this even more striking is what had just happened on our trip. Angela was driving, and only a few minutes earlier had been on the receiving end of road rage. The other driver ignored state law and driving protocol, yelled at Angela when she was clearly in the right of way, and soon thereafter sped around us and cut us off as we approached the next intersection. This unfortunate event was highly stressful for Angela who was just embarking upon the two hour trip after we ate a nice relaxing dinner at Culver’s restaurant. That would have been enough to sour my mindset for the remainder of the day. Yet somehow, Angela managed to rebound enough to view a couple of dudes fixing a flat tire in a completely positive light.
The lesson is simple: how do I view the things around me?
Yes, sometimes legitimately stinky things happen-things which justify negative emotions such as sadness or anger. It is not necessarily healthy to ignore these realities or stuff these emotions. But how do I view normal everyday stuff? Do I see the blessings associated with the hardships? Blessings like not having to change a tire alone. Or like what happened to us in Valentine, Nebraska on our recent vacation out west. While pumping gas at a service station, we discovered that we had a flat tire and we had a 7 hour drive ahead of us! What a relief to discover that there was a service repair station just a half a block down the street. So, rather than driving down the road and then being stranded in the middle of Nebraska, we were right where we could get help. And the service station fit us into their packed day, patched us up for only $25 and sent us on our way. (The tire is still holding, by the way.)
Each day holds blessings. Sometimes it is challenging to see it, but when we do, it makes a difference in our lives. And it helps our own mindset and emotional state when we can see the positives rather than the negative.
After twenty years, the Lord is still using my lovely wife to teach me important lessons and to grow me into a better person. I’m grateful to God for Angela! People like her are one reason the rest of us can have a positive outlook on the world. So I share this story to honor her with the hope that it reminds all of us to perceive our blessings.
A prayer for today:
Lord please grant us the grace to have eyes to see the good things in life, the positives around us – even when undesirable things come our way, like flat tires and road rage. Thank you that you are with us in the midst of it all! Amen.
