Grateful for the Obstacles

Today my family faced some discouragement.  We thought that a big issue in our lives was coming together perfectly, and we ended up falling just short of success–meaning that we’ll have some stress and difficulty as we put the pieces back together over the next few months.

The reason we fell short was something we’ve had trouble with before: our confidence, our positivity, and our ability to persuade.

So often when we fall short of a goal we get discouraged.

Instead, I am focusing on being grateful.

For my family, these shortcomings are things we need to work to overcome in this particular instance.  But, more broadly, we need to overcome these things for the rest of our lives.  These obstacle will not go away for us.  Instead, it will become more important over time.

So, in a fundamental way, this shortcoming is teaching us what we need to know to succeed.  Without this setback, we would not continue to improve; we would not spend more time learning on this topic.  But this challenge is giving us the opportunity to get better, to grow.

I am working to be thankful for the setbacks; be grateful for the obstacles.  If I can lay aside my pride and discouragement, the challenges will help me grow in ways that successes never will.