We all have our own journey through life. We make decisions along the way which guides us through the journey we are on. Some are good and some are bad. We all have a story and they aren't always the same.
I can tell you that my own story has many chapters with drama, comedy, adventure and romance. I would have never believed how my story has turned out so far. It’s crazy that when you are 18 and graduating from high school that people expect for you to know your future but life is far too unpredictable to know what is ahead. We all do the best that we can with the decisions we make in life. Jobs we have. The person we marry. The place we want to live. There are so many variables to life that we can’t possibly plan every single detail of our lives.
Some people judge us on the parts of the story they know. Unfortunately some people like fill in the gaps of our story with what they don’t know. We shouldn’t judge people when we don’t know the whole story. It’s not always a clean and perfect story. Honestly, some parts of our story are messy and probably things we would rather forget and wish had never done. This is all part of our story. The encouraging part is that if we don’t like our story, we can always start a new chapter in our story. There was a time in my life that I didn’t like my story. I hated it and was deeply depressed and felt like I was stuck in the story I didn’t want. Ultimately, I made a decision to start a new chapter and I can tell you that the second part of my story is much better than the first. You have to have the courage to do it. You don’t have to be stuck in the story you are in. You just have to make the decision to change the script.
Hey, life isn’t easy or fair.
My grandfather once said that life is like a steep hill. The path is full of briars and all kinds of things along the way but if we stick with it we will reach the top. Life has taught me that the best ability to have is the ability to adjust to the changes in life. I won’t say that I have mastered this ability but I can tell you to expect it. There are many mountains and valleys we have to go through. In my life, I have trusted God with it all. He has been with me through it all. He knows the whole story of our lives.
Don’t let your story be dictated by someone else’s opinion of you either. I once had a period in my life when there was a person who was a constant irritant to me and had an opposite opinion about everything I did. I finally decided that the opinion of this person was just that - it was their opinion. They didn’t know me and didn’t know my story. The day I realized that was the day I had freedom from trying to please that person. No matter how hard you try, you will never please every person in your life. You have to decide for yourself who are truly the people in your life that make your story better.
If you need to know the key to being free it’s that the only opinion about your story that matters is what God thinks of you. It’s wonderful to have people in your life to love but if you don’t, you don’t have to let your life be determined by the opinion of others. God has a plan for us all and is willing to be as much a part of our story as we will let Him.
Life will definitely surprise you. There are things that have happened in my life that I would have never imagined that would happen. The only way you can do this is to trust God and make the best decision you can. We can’t stress out about making the absolute perfect decision. There are people who agonize over making decisions and think it has to be perfect. I have been that person and you just make a decision and if it turns out to be the wrong decision you work with it and get to a better place.
We all have a story. God knows the story. People don’t know all the details. It’s always funny to me when I see a family member that I haven’t seen or spoken to in 100 years and they tell me how much they “love” me. The truth is that they only know the memory of another part of the story. They don’t know me or what has happened in my life since the last time they saw me. I have to laugh about it and move on. The “Little Milton” they knew when we were growing up isn’t the same Milton today. There has been a lot of the story written since then. People just don’t know.
Write the story of your life every day and live the best that you can. It isn’t the perfect life but we can trust God and leave the results to Him.
