Our Family Motto

I have a very ugly habit of taking negative events or experiences and directing them back at me. Not to gloat, but I’m actually rather good at it. I can take any event and make it my fault through some mind manipulation and powerful convincing.

Even when I’m experiencing something that I know will make me stronger in the end, even when I know God has a plan, I wallow in self-pity and pain over the situation.

I try not to go this path. I repeat my mantras Let Go And Let God. Surrender to God. God has a plan. But in my heart of hearts, I really just want it all to go away. I want God to say, “Oops! Did I do that IRL? Hold on… let me fix that for you.”

I don’t want the experience to make me stronger. I don’t want the experience at all. The discomfort, the worry and the fear. It can be overbearing. What could possibly be worth all this pain?

But aren’t these the nuggets that will empower us later on? The discomfort, the gut tug, the gasps for breath that just never pull in enough air. These beats are reinforcing our resistance to pain and suffering in the future. Down the road, when bad things happen, we will inevitably be stronger because of the hardened inner lining that has built within us. I need this pain today so my suffering tomorrow will hurt less.

And, wait for it…. our kids are watching us. They’re watching our every step when things don’t go our way. They want to see what imperfection looks like. They want to know how to react when life hands us lemons.

I recently read an article about assigning a family motto to your home and I was smitten. What a great way to implement a family mission statement that keeps everyone in alignment. Something I can write on the bathroom mirror, or whisper in my kids ear before he takes off for school. A direction when life feels murky; when the lemons start creeping in.

I literally googled “family mottos.” LOL.

But then I got to thinking. There’s a board I hung up on the wall of our office several years ago. it was more for wall candy at the time. It looked nice and something drove me to click and purchase. But it was only this moment when it finally spoke to me. We DO have a family motto. We’ve had one for years. I just wasn’t ready to hear it.

In Our Home

We laugh, We share

We make mistakes

We love, dream and

Count our Blessings