Have you ever had a life altering experience?
Something that took place at one point in your lifetime
that forever changed you and forever changed the direction you were perhaps going?
Altered means: to change or make different
                      : to adjust
Life changes will happen but sometimes those life changes
change us immediately and there is no choice.
The day you graduate from high school is the day you become more of an adult.
The day you graduate from college is the day your dreams begin.
The wedding day creates for you a life altering experience
you no longer think of yourself only
you learn to think of another.
The day your new baby is born
forever you become a ‘parent’.
Another life altering experience.
Mary’s life was altered the moment the angel told her
“you will be with child and you will be the mother of the Son of God.”
It was an especially difficult altering experience for her
to be with child and not be married would mean she could have been stoned.
All of us have life altering experiences that happen to us.
The key for us is the process we apply when dealing with the new ‘experience.’
It is all about our attitude.
Mary accepted what the angel said with a willing heart and an open spirit.
It is all about our ability to cope.
Mary went to her cousin Elizabeths house for enouragement.
It is within the midst of our life change where we must make a choice.
I watched a special on September 11th last night and it brought to mind all the ‘life altering’ situations of everyone who were involved in that tragedy. Not one person got up that morning including the President of the United States and thought about the twin towers crashing down or planes attacking or thousands dying.
It wasn’t something anyone could even think about but for those who were there it was a definate life altering experience.
President Bush was telling the stories of how he felt during the horrible tragedy and he said,
“One day this will be looked upon and remembered just as the Pearl Harbor attack and other unfortunate moments in our history. But for us for the ones who were there and who saw the horrific evil and devastation we will be changed forever.“
How many of those survivors came away with a new appreciation for life?
They had no choice but to move forward from the life altering experience.
Loved ones were lost forever.
Goodbyes were never said.
The lesson for me in all this is to remember
when not if a life changing event takes place
the question to ask myself is this:
will this experience make me a better or a bitter person?
Am I going to allow this to harden my heart or soften it?
What moment in time changed you forever?
Do you remember how you responded to it?
Just a question for all of us to think about.