Brighten Your Day

It was the middle of the night and I was sitting in a chair thinking about all the blunders I had made in my life. I was working the overnight shift in a Special Needs group home for mentally handicapped adults. While everyone else was asleep I stayed awake in case of an emergency. Left alone with my thoughts I had gotten to brooding about those blunders I had already made in my short life. I was a young dad and recent college graduate. I had graduated with a degree in English Literature and it hadn’t helped me get a single job. I was wishing now I had studied business or education where jobs were almost guaranteed. I had also stubbornly refused to move out of state in search for work, which had left me with even fewer job options. Thus, I was sitting here in the dark at 2 A.M. wondering where my life had gone wrong.

Little did I know that my life was just beginning and I was set to travel a long and winding road in which all of my blunders would be made right. It turned out working at that group home would help to prepare me for when my two sons were diagnosed with Autism and Mental Retardation and I began a lifetime of caring for them. That jobless English Literature degree too would turn out to be a benefit as I began to write about my life, what I had learned, and what God was teaching me each new day. Staying in my home state would also become a blessing as it helped me to spend time with my Mom, Nana, and Dad in their final years. It helped our relationships to grow deeper, better, and more loving. Looking back now to that time 30 years ago I see that I was where I need to be then in order to be where I am now.

There is a wonderful old saying that goes: “God makes our blunders wise.” I see now His kind hand guiding my entire life, leading me to ever greater wisdom, light, and love. May you do the same. May you allow God to lovingly use even your blunders for your benefit.