October Lessons

{Source: a pair & a spare}

October has been a full month - unexpectedly.  Of course, I expected our weekends and to-do's to be full but there were a lot of unexpected things that have happened that have really caused me to reflect on my expectations for myself.

Sometimes you go through life and you are going along with the things you think you want for yourself.  Or acting the way you think you are proud of.  Or living in the way that you think is adequate.  And then something happens - and you might as well have been slapped in the face. It isn't only humbling, but it puts everything else into the right priority-level that it should have been all along. 

I am a believer that you should live the best way you know how at each moment.  And I am also a believer that you should learn every second of every day.  {Therefore, I also think that you should be constantly readjusting your "best way" because you are learning more every second.} But sometimes we forget, or get too comfortable, or lose focus. 

This month I had some wake up calls. But in the last week or so, I have realized a one reoccurring theme that I truly feel like God has been trying to tell me at minimum for the last month: sometimes He puts you through things that seem like you aren't winning.  But later, those things can come in handy because it makes you of better service to someone else.

I have had more than one hand's worth of instances this month where I could use my experiences, my hardships, and my hurdles to help someone else.  And it is SO refreshing! To be able to comfort someone in their sorrows genuinely and to make them know they can talk to me about something because I have been through it... that is a relief.  Almost as if my struggles and experiences weren't to waste.  

Don't get me wrong, watching someone else go through something that they feel like they are never going to "win" is tough.  I am a fixer - I don't like to stand by on the sidelines and watch someone hurt {who does?}.  It is awful and I am not above sharing a few lot of tears over it.  But knowing that their struggle is only temporary because I know that mine was - and how much better I have it now because of it - is beyond comforting.  Knowing that I can be of service.  Knowing that God got me through and He will get them through too.... pure bliss. 

So what is your experience that wasn't "winnable" but was a learning opportunity that you can offer to someone else? What experience can you lean on that sucked {no other word for it} that you can rely on to help someone else not feel alone?  To allow someone else to feel welcomed to talk to you should they ever need it? What are you doing that is helping others because God was there to pull you through?

Those are my October lessons... and I am so glad I was willing to learn them even when I couldn't win them. 

Linking up with Rachel at Oh Simple Thoughts and Madison at Wetherills Say I Do for Community Brew Vol. 5