02/15/2022
Happiness is a choice…..When I see a good picture of an individual who looks happy and carefree, I believe that’s only half the picture. My oldest son, Brayden, once found a buzzard with a broken wing and caught it to bring to me. When I saw him he was sad. I asked him “why are you sad”? He responded, “I feel bad for this buzzard, that it broke its wing and is suffering”. I smiled and told him while that’s true, its only half the story. I continued to say that “I believed that we are blessed to have had the opportunity to go to church as a family that morning, come home to this animal that we rarely get to see up close, experience something new together as a family and save it from a potentially much worse outcome, such as starvation or getting eaten by another animal”.
When faced with situations in life we usually have one of two responses, happiness/excitement, or sadness/anger. What if we could default to interpreting our struggles or trails as opportunities? I would like to think they are, not saying this makes them any easier, at least life experiences have taught me this.
Thousands of years ago a man choose to love people who didn’t deserve it, healed people who weren’t worthy of healing and befriended outcast. In return, he was beaten, spit on, stripped, had nails driven through his wrist and finally hung on a cross and left for dead. Speed up to the present, thousands of years earlier, we see the cross as a symbol of our salvation. In the midst of one of the worst historical stories we have on record, our salvation was forged…..
In the end Brayden made the choice on his own to be the light in a potentially dark situation and took a once in a lifetime picture smiling while holding the buzzard. Seeing that happy couple, friend, family or a picture of the life you’ve always wanted on social media or in passing may look great on the outside, but chances are it came at a cost of some kind. Smile when you can and when you don’t want too. Some might say that’s being fake. I say it’s showing blind faith in hoping and knowing that a blessing is right around the corner. Choose happiness.
