The Night That Changed Our Lives
Do you feel that you are just not good enough?
An elderly woman takes 2 buckets to a river every morning to collect water for the family. One of these buckets is fairly new—in good shape, the other, not so. She would spill over half of it on the way back to the village. This went on for some time. Then the cracked, old rusty bucket asked the lady “why do you still use me? I am sorry for leaking lots of water, I will understand if you do not want to use me any longer.” The lady responds with a smile-you don’t think I know about your cracks. Look at all the beautiful flowers you have grown on this path back to my village. She goes on to say: I planted these seeds but every morning it’s you who does the watering:
Remember-feeling good enough in life, in work, in business and in our relationships has everything to do with how we personally judge the cracks in our own bucket. We all have a few cracks. But, are they cracks that wreck us, that taint us, and that ruin our experiences and desirability? Or, do our cracks water a trail of flowers that we haven’t even stopped to appreciate. Choose the see flowers through the cracks in your own bucket. Sometimes these pressures make us feel less than good enough.
Do any of you remember going to a new school and felt threatened-scared of the unknown, your surroundings have changed, new faces in the crowd? Fortunately for me and my family this did not happen. However, I do recall seeing new faces in the crowd.
There was that one new face in the crowd at my high school and I recollect doing my best to not allow her to feel left out. During my episode that took place in January 2014 that led to my writing The Night That Changed Our Lives, I had many reach out to me to say hello or it has been a long time since we last spoke or written.
This led to a note that I received from a girl whose family was transplanted from Michigan to Alabama. I saw this frightened tall blonde walking down the hallways and her reminiscing about my glancing a welcome smile her way and this made her not feel terrified at her presence in a new setting she was placed in.
Are you being that friend to one that needs just a simple hello or smile in their lives? That hello or smile might just be what they needed and it possibly could have come at the right time in their lives.
How about planting those seeds of what a happy Christian life should look like?
The Great Commission tells us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20.
Religion is man searching for God and Christianity is God searching for man.
