Twenty
four years ago when I woke up it was a Sunday morning.
I
honestly couldn’t tell you if I was nervous or excited, what I wore, how I did
my hair or much of our conversation- I remember what he wore, where we sat and how
I felt when I was with him. My first Diamondbacks game in their Inaugural season
with what seemed like a nice wholesome family oriented man. I was finally going
on my first date with this boy I had been talking to for a few weeks. We met
through a mutual friend Mary that I worked with at the time. I just turned 19
and was in college he was 22 and working full time. This day changed the course
of my life forever. Him being in my life and taken from me were both opportunities.
Sitting
in church for my mother-in-law’s brother’s funeral last week one of the cousins
told some stories about what he meant to him and what type of guy he was.
Listening to his tales, he mentioned remembering going to church one Sunday
where he told his uncle he was glad he had the chance to be in church with him
that day and the uncle looked at him and said, nothing is by chance, it is all
an opportunity. That really resonated with me.
Chance is like rolling dice or flipping a
coin, opportunity is a window of time you are given to make something happen. I
believe life happens and that timing is key. I also believe that things don’t
happen to you just because. I also believe we have a choice when you are faced
with two or more possibilities. We are presented with opportunities by God, but
we still have free will and we are able to act upon these opportunities or pass
them by. We can learn from our mistakes and try again or quit and maybe miss
out on the opportunity to succeed or better ourself. We can thrive from our heartaches and push
forward, or we can become bitter and resentful and live a life of despair. We
can choose to do a lot of things in our life no matter how difficult. Sometimes
we give up before we even get started, sometimes we throw in the towel in the
middle of the struggle, sometimes we just don’t even try for fear of failure
and sometimes we do it until we get it done with pain, sweat and tears.
Yesterday
was one of those days. I recently bought a microwave from Lowe’s (the heating element
in mine was no longer reliable) and after waiting on it for almost 2 months ( I
wanted it to match my other appliances) it was delivered. Somehow, I was
expecting they would install it I guess. I don’t know. When they delivered from
Spencer’s my washer and dryer about a year ago, they hooked them up for us.
That was not the case. I guessed I had to pay extra for that, but I don’t even
remember getting the option. I had someone offer to put it up, but our timing
was off for the last week, so yesterday I decided that I would tackle this
project on my own as much as I could and have Paxton and Aidan help me with
what I couldn’t.
Paxton
helped me remove the old microwave. I had to make a few calls, watch a few
videos, google to figure out what tools to use (don’t worry I had all the faith
whatever I needed would be in my garage, Thanks Steve), take apart a portion of
the new microwave, flip an exhaust set up from roof to rear, reassemble it, and
after 3 tries we finally got it in. The previous microwave holes for the bolts
did not line up to this one. The template did not line up ( or it was operator error,
I have never used a template in my life- Steve could make a template from
scratch when he would do a project but I hadn’t ever paid attention to how they
worked or where to line them up- in my defense the paper was way bigger than
the cabinet above my stove and the arrows on it were no where near the edge of
the paper)
I
was bound and determined that I would get this microwave hung. These boys
almost threw in their towel and told me to call the neighbor. But as my aunt
said the Polack in me had more determination than defeat. No matter how hard,
no matter how frustrating, I know there are some things I CAN do. I could have
easily waited and paid a handyman (the few I called were booked out) and I
could have waited on friends who offered to help me. Some might say my
impatience gets the best of me sometimes, but sometimes I feel like it also
presents me with the opportunity to shine where I never thought I could. There
is something about accomplishing something on your own without paying for it or
asking for a favor that just feels good. Did I have two teenage boys help me, yes
I did (no one can hold a microwave and bolt it in at the same time by themselves.) but I also
feed them both almost every day, take them lots of places and put up with their
teenage moodiness, even though one of them isn’t mine- so they are obligated…
LOL.
In
the bible there are a lot of verses about opportunity and a lot of them point
to Judas waiting for the right opportunity to hand Jesus over to the
authorities. This was not by chance, it
was a choice, but a choice that he had to make where the hand of God was in the
delivery because that was the way it was supposed to happen us to have
salvation and eternal life promised to us. Depending on what bible app you use
the word opportunity presents itself in the bible almost 2.5 times more than the word
chance. Knowing this can be something of great value when you take the time to
recognize the opportunities that present themselves to you on a daily basis.
For
those of you who may be struggling with something, just remember that you can
look at something as a burden, struggle, tragedy or disaster and dwell on how
unfair life is. We cannot rewind and start over or change the outcome, we can
only take what we have, recognize the opportunity going forward and make what we
want for ourselves. Take what you have and make what you want! Those of us who
are survivors are still here, our life is still going forward, and we can recognize
the opportunity to grow and shine and use this to serve others and be happy or we
can harbor our ill feelings and live in defeat. It is a choice. It is ok to be
sad, it is ok to feel defeated, like I have said many times feelings are
neither right nor wrong, they are just the way we feel, but we cannot let them
overcome us and we can not live life in sadness or defeat. What an awfully lonely life that can be.
If
you need a confidence boost, go out and do a project you never thought you could
it just might make all the difference.
It
had long since came to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat
back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things. -Leonardo
da Vinci
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