When I first heard the phrase “life is tough, get a helmet” it followed with a knuckle knock on the noggin. It left quite an impression on me, and I refer to it often. It’s true.

Life, marriage, parenting, employment, faith and making change is all hard. Either we are working hard at it, or against it.

Have you ever said to your spouse “I’m done?”. Do you ever find yourself venting to a friend telling them “that’s it I can’t take anymore?”.

What has happened to get us to those points? Surely we aren’t contributing to the difficulty? After all we are the only one making an effort in the situation.

This morning as the sun peaks above the horizon streaking the sky with a pink and orange display of hope for the day……I sit and dig deep, looking inward and reflecting on the many, many times in my life phases that I experienced tough times. As I dig down I and pick apart those times, I can see now that usually my “reaction” to the situation made things tougher for me. Sometimes it was my “pride” or my need for “revenge” and other times my “stubbornness” while other times my heart was “hurt”. The situation lingered, or worsened depending on what I contributed, and just plain left me exhausted, done, not able to take another step.

When life is tough, make sure you don’t make it tougher.

Before we get to the point of being done, let’s change it up and take a step back and dig deep looking for a way to handle life’s tough situations, and relationships with grace, mercy, forgiveness, selflessness, submission, obedience, and love.  By stepping back and digging deep before we react we can see more clearly what the situation requires of us. This also allows us time to choose how we will react.

There are times you may need to be tough, times to put on your helmet, and times to open your arms instead of crossing them.

Join me again as we journey further into the heart of “change”.