If I were going to pick key lessons in my growth over the years one of them would be to not see everything as a personal curse and instead see everything as a learning experience.
I still see or hear people chanting ’woe is me’ and detailing how unfair life has been to them. I get it. I’ve done that, myself. You feel like you have it worse than others, and you just want your fair share. But, that misses a few important points.
First, not everyone has it perfect. In fact, MOST people will struggle through various crisis over the years. You may have just met them before they had theirs, or you may have caught them after they made it through. Or, they COULD be facing something that you don't even know about.
Second, I realized one time when reflecting on it that I was seeing it from the wrong perspective. I was really facing this when I had a VERY ADHD oldest child and had to work through that. I realized that instead of asking why it was that I had to face that, I should be seeing it from my daughter's point of view. Imagine, instead, that God said he had someone that was going to have this challenge and thought... who do I know that can handle this and do a good job. You were selected.
Finally, I learned that everything is a learning experience. The rain falls on the just and the unjust, as Scripture says. Things are going to happen. However, if you spend a long time thinking about the fairness of it all, you will miss the ability to LEARN from your part in it, so you are more prepared for the next time you will face something like that and thus avoid future frustrations.
So, when things happen, I will get people apologizing for how hard a situation is, but my mind is already in learning mode applying the lessons of the current situation for a better future decision tree, instead of getting angry or passing judgement on the realities that are current and beyond my ability to make any different. I think that is a good perspective for everyone to have for their situations.
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