Our Best Selves - April 30

"Our Best Selves"

Interesting topic with a focus on bringing our best selves to marriage.  While I agree with that, I also think that a marriage is a place for our hurt selves to be healed.  I don't mean being hurt by one's marriage partner, but bring the hurt from outside in to be healed.  I couldn't have healed from the hurt from my mother if it hadn't been for unloading all of the pain on Gary and his help with the healing process.  But that isn't the topic for today.

As I read today's devotion by Shauna, I agreed, but I really think we need to take it one step further.  We need to bring our best selves to our children, our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues, and the people we serve (in my case, my students).  

Bad days do happen.  Trigger situations happen which mean that anger erupts.  Small annoyances build into bigger blocks that push the breaking point.  

Often if the 'bad day' were happening when I left in the morning, by the time the drive to Logansport was completed, I had worked through the frustration, and I had put on the 'happy face' to be ready for my students.  They worked better when I was smiling and cheerful.  Soon I really did feel like smiling and being cheerful.

Putting our best selves forward is never a bad thing...and our best selves can be contagious.  But I still think that sometimes our spouse needs to help us overcome the trials and tribulations to open the doors for our good selves to return.