love to paint

“Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.” ―  Charles Dickens ,  Nicholas Nickleby I heard this quote when I was watching Nicholas Nickleby this week.  We live in a society that tells us to expect happiness.  That happiness is the point.   Tonight my oldest daughter was disappointed with how her night turned out.  I know she's 9 1/2 years old, but still I understood.  I tried to explain to her that sometimes that's just how life is.  So instead of wanting things to be another way, we have to enjoy what we can and accept when things are different.  I find that a lot of life is that way.   Mother's Day was not what I expected.  Sunday is a busy morning for me.  There's always something else that needs to get done before we get out the door and on our way to church.  My son fell at church and bonked his head--hard.  So, I sat through church a little worr...

A month ago, I wrote this passage and thought I'd share it here.  I wrote this reflection after reading a book that really encouraged me.  The book was about suffering within a particular context, but I considered how what the author was talking about might apply to me and these were the thoughts I wrote down at the time... I think that we go through something similar to grief when we realize that our lives, families, or marriages differ significantly from what we expected and/or desired.  So, how do we deal with disappointed expectations?  Can we deal with them the same way that we deal with grief? First, we’re confused.  Why isn’t life the way I expected it to be? Next, we’re hurt.  Either our spouse, family, or God isn’t loving us the way we hoped to be loved.  Or they aren’t loving each other the way we hoped for.  Then, anger.  It has to be someone’s fault.  So, who’s is it? Then on to guilt.  It’s all my fault....