Second Chances

We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.
--Fredrick Koeing

I don't know if Mr. Koeing stated truth for most people, but he sure nailed the way I am all too often. It's so easy to think about all the things I've damaged in lost over the years due to my selfishness, self-centeredness, rebellion and reliance upon chemicals rather than God, or even things that have been taken from me by others, and then to think if I could salvage those things or regain them all wiopuld be well. But it is never about the things, the relationships, the status I may have had in the past. The past is gone. I can not regain or repair it. I can however clean up my side of the street, rebuild relationships (especially the one with God) and move on. It's not about getting back to anything I once had or was but living in relationship and submission to my Higher Power today.

When I remember that and live for the relationship with God, when what is best for that relationship is my guide for the decisions of my today, I find blessings and serenity inn my life. I become happy, joyous and free. And when my focus is not about getting back or replacing something special that I destroyed or lost, I have found that God often blesses me with what I chose not to focus on...a second chance.

I destroyed my career, but I can still work. And I believe that God can and will direct me to employment that I love and that will meet the financial needs I have for myself and my family. I hurt people, damaged and destroyed relationships. But today many of those old relationships are being rebuilt and I have amazing and special new relationships as well. I lost material things that I now realize were never that important in the first place and find that the things I truly need I have or will get when the timing is right. God gave me a chance at a dream I have had since I saw how my father loved my mother, and I butchered it, destroyed it, broke it beyond repair. I can not change that. But as I sought God first in my life and quit trying to make the dream come true myself, He gave me rest, let me dream the dream again, and then He gave me a second chance. Today I am grateful for that and will try to remember that the blessings in my life today are a gift from God and not the result of anything that I have done.