When Your “Perfect” Story is Dinged and Dented: Finding Joy From Pain

 

How Do We Find Joy From Pain?

It can often be difficult to find joy from pain even in the midst of life’s most minor circumstances……

During the last few years our home has undergone a variety of renovations. With only one daughter left at home, my engineering hubby took on the task of tearing down some walls and expertly designing and creating a new beautiful bedroom “sanctuary” for us.

Since renovation often creates a snowball effect, you might not be surprised that we continued to find ourselves in the local home improvement store quite frequently. Last December such a visit resulted in a bargain find we could not pass up. It came in the form of beautiful new black stainless steel refrigerator. To fully appreciate this find, you need to know that I’d become very good friends with our local appliance parts store, having consulted them on numerous occasions for replacement shelves, drawers, etc. for our current “dinosaur”.  That said, I was overjoyed when my hubby was won over and endorsed the purchase.

If refrigerators can be described as gorgeous, this one fit the bill! It sat proudly in our kitchen with it’s beautiful gleaming finish, French doors, and sleek sliding drawers. It was perfect!

Not long after it arrived, I was innocently unloading the adjacent dishwasher when it happened. An unforeseen collision between dishwasher and refrigerator occurred and my precious new fridge did not escape unscathed. In fact, it was now dented and dinged along with my spirit.

This collision made me question my carelessness and carried with it the hard conviction of being the first to “scar” our beautiful new fridge.  Now, instead of seeing the gleaming new finish, I could only see the dent left behind by my poor judgement.

Do you experience days where you can only see the result of your poor judgement or the poor judgement of a friend or family member? Do you have days where the hard truth stares you in the face as you consider how things should have been and how they actually are? You are not alone.

What “dent” is plaguing you?

That dent plagued me for days. How could I find joy from pain? My hubby was sweet in reassuring me that it was only “stuff,” but I couldn’t shake the conviction of seeing my poor judgement on display every time I strolled through the kitchen.

Finally, it hit me. Did anyone else see that dent and question it? Nope! Did it steal even a second of joy from anyone else’s day? Nope! Now I faced conviction of a different kind. Conviction that I had allowed a simple “dent” to steal my joy. Conviction that instead of seeing all the good that remained, I was derailed by one small mishap and flaw.

As hard as it may be to find joy from pain, we have to embrace the fact that our “perfect” stories are going to encounter dents and dings. Poor judgements will be made and consequences will result. We can’t, however, let those dents steal our joy and self-worth. Instead, we must move forward knowing that those dents and dings are evidence that we are out there doing life. Every day is a learning process and a brand new chance to bravely step out with renewed confidence to write the next chapter in our “perfect” story. It is going to be messy and full of mishaps. We might even suffer some dents and dings along the way, but, like my fridge after the strategic placement of some adorable floral magnets, it is going to be beautiful and it is going to be perfectly you!