I Am Me

If you know me at all, you know the most important thing to me is my family.  I have a wonderful husband and three equally wonderful children, and I try to do whatever I can to make life happy for all of us.  I try my best to be a good wife and a good mother, and without trying to pat myself on the back, I do believe that I succeed at these two things most of the time.

There was an event during the course of the last week which made me think about whether my beliefs and intentions were sincere.  I know I am not perfect, but in reflecting over what happened earlier this week, I do still believe that I was trying to protect my children from disappointment and resentment.  In the course of doing so, I expressed my opinion with a certain subject.  One person responded in such a harsh manner, that I felt the need to defend myself so others would not think less of me.  Of course, I should have known that anyone who really knows me would already know what I am really like, and there was no real reason to defend myself at all.

In retrospect, I have learned that I need to try not to take to heart what one person says about me.  I know who I am and what my intentions are, and I believe they were good.  That is all that matters.  I also found it interesting that my daily devotion yesterday was about how I need to stay in the presence of God by giving thanks to Him, being generous towards others, and learning to forgive, among other things.  Wait a minute - learning to forgive?  Oh no!  Well, I know what I need to work on.  I need to forgive this person for the ugly things they said about me and others I love.  That is going  to be a tough one.  See, I told you I wasn't perfect!  But I will do my best to try to be forgiving.

All in all, I believe I was able to stay true to myself.  I was very happy with my ability to bite my tongue when what I really wanted to do was say unkind things in return to the person who was being not nice to me.  I was reminded of how fortunate I am to have some good and caring friends.  I am thankful for my parents and the good job they did in raising me, teaching me things not found in a book, like being kind, considerate, and respectful.  When it comes to being a parent, I hope "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

So, the next time something bad happens, I will be more inclined to look for what I can learn from the situation, and be thankful for the good things.

"Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much." ~ Oscar Wilde