Love the Rock

One of the many perks of my current freelance job is that I get to spend a lot of time online, connecting with other bloggers.  One of the newest additions to the blog tour event I'm organizing Teresa, has posted about 7 suggestions for 2012.  By far, my favorite is #2.

"Remember if you can't change the situation change your attitude.  If you're tied to a rock, learn to love the rock.  Let the situation change you."

I had this image in my head of myself hugging a rock, though a chain bound us together, loving the rock as if I'd chosen to be bound to it.    While many of the things we are bound to are results of our own choices, sometimes we are bound to things because of the choices of others, or circumstances beyond our control.

I LOVE freedom.  I love to have no ties that bind, no anchors, no chains holding me back, all the analogies you can think of, I'm sure they apply to me.  And when I do sense something weighing me down, I tend to fight it, wriggling like a worm on a hook to get out of the situation and be free once more.  But sometimes, the things that "weigh us down," whether it be a loved one, a job, a health concern, a living situation, financial lack, whatever it may be... have purpose in our lives.  These things are there to teach us patience, perseverance, wisdom, to strengthen us and prepare us for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

So I am trying to see the "rocks" of my life as blessings.  How can I grow from this?  How is this rock helping to change me into the person God wants me to be?  When I see the rock as a blessing in disguise, I love it.