Isn’t that a sad story? It brings back a lot of emotions for me. It was hard. How about I try it again? Do you ever wish you could reverse time, and go back to do things over differently? Let’s try it with this story.

It was a beautiful Christmas morning. The kids were super excited for the holiday. We were doing a video chat with my in-laws, and were opening the presents that they had sent for the kids. My daughter handed me the cutest little cabbage patch doll. It was so adorable! It was in the cutest little box, and it had these little ties on it to keep the doll from falling out. I tried to get them off with the scissors, but when that didn’t work, I used a knife. The knife slipped and I ended up cutting my hand. I went to the hospital and got stitches. It was kind of a pain. But fortunately, the emergency room was super fast and we were in and out within a couple of hours. I got home and I returned to celebrating Christmas day with my family.

Both of those stories are true, and they are the same story. When I had the knife in my hand, I literally stabbed myself. While it was still stuck in my hand, I turned and showed it to my husband and he said, “Well, pull it out.” So, I pulled it out and put some pressure on it, and I thought, “I wish I could rewind. I wish I could have done that differently.” But I couldn’t, I couldn’t go back. I couldn’t have the knife not have gone into my hand. It just happened. It was an accident, and accidents happen. Life happens all the time. Things happen that make us think, “Oh, I wish I had not done that. Can we rewind?” Well, we can’t. We can’t rewind. We just can’t. Things happen and we cannot undo what has been done.  

But what we can do is we can decide what story we’re going to tell. Are we going to hold on to the tragic tale, and focus on the tragedy and the hardship? We can choose to do that, and sometimes we do. We stick with only the hard parts. Alternatively, we can choose to focus on the highlights, the blessings, and all the good aspects of the situation. We can focus on the triumph. You can’t have triumph without tragedy. You can’t conquer a mountain without having to climb it, without getting blisters and fatigue. You can’t feel the joy without feeling the pain. That’s just life. 

We can’t experience joy without pain, but we can choose where we focus our thoughts, and how we tell our story. Is it a tragedy? Or is it a triumph? It’s both, but where do we focus? Doesn’t that make all the difference. I challenge you today to think of something that you’ve overcome and share it. Tell someone, “Hey, there’s this hard thing that I overcame.” And celebrate your triumph. You can do that, and then ask them if there is anything that was hard for them that they have overcome? We can look for the triumphs. As we seek out the triumphs in our life, we will feel the satisfaction of victory and live with greater positivity. But we must look for it.