A good life doesn't mean the absence of bad things.
I interviewed a 95-year-old woman this week at Edgewood. She's the next Resident of the Week and I was getting ready to write her story. As we talked she said over and over, "I had a good life." And I believed her. M spoke of a wonderful husband, lovely daughters, and a childhood in which she had everything she needed. A good life, indeed.
However, M also told me of a troubled relationship with her father. Of feeling like she wasn't able to live up to her fullest potential. And of the murder of one of her young daughters!
Still, she would repeat, "I had a good life."
At the end of our interview I asked M how her claim of a good life could match up to all the bad things through which she went. "How do you view the hard times?" I asked. She replied by saying the bad moments shaped her; made her stronger. And she didn't focus on the bad. M said she tried to remember how good the good was so the bad didn't drown it out.
She held to her conclusion, "I had a good life."
And I believe her. Just as peace is not the absence of trouble, so A good life doesn't mean the absence of bad things.
4 comments:
Amen!! The apostle Paul was a classic example of this. A man who was tortured, beaten, shipwrecked, and a ton of other bad things, yet in prison he wrote of joy and peace because of Christ.
That is how I want to be. Joyful in all thinks.
Interesting outcome! This seems so simple, but for me, when it comes down to it, it's hard. All I can dwell on is the bad and making sure that it doesn't happen again.
smooches,
Larie
SO VERY TRUE! I would think it difficult to honestly appreciate the good times if we didn't have the rough times to go through.
We have to have those rough times to mold us and make us who God needs us to be. :o)
Leah - Because of Christ. YES!
Larie - Yes. It's hard. I wouldn't CHOOSE the bad. But I'm so thankful God can work it all for good.
Jodi - We do tend to take the good times for granted, don't we...
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