A positive outlook on things

Yesterday my husband and I were out in our garage doing a little spring cleaning. During that time, a few people took it upon themselves to break into our house and steal all of my oldest son's electronic toys, some of his clothes, and my husband's brand new 80 GB iPod that I had purchased for him last month. To say I was pissed off is an understatement. Did I want to string up whomever did it by their toes and make them suffer? You bet.

My son, being almost 15, tries to act hard and as if nothing bothers him. It broke my heart to see him crying and upset over the fact that some jerks decided to act in this manner. I went out and replaced his Xbox 360 and iPod, as well as my husband's iPod. Today we are going out to replenish his wardrobe. Unfortunately we thought that this could never happen to us and did not have insurance. Last night we purchased insurance for the next what if's.

As my husband and I were out yesterday to buy window locks and wood to block the sliding glass door, we went next door to Sam's Club to purchase the replacement items. As we were leaving, there was a gentleman outside the exit door selling See's Candy bars. My husband told the gentleman, "We were robbed today. Why not bring some goodness to our day." So we purchased a few bars of candy.

The gentleman started telling us that we can't always help the bad things that happen to us, but that God will never give us more than we can handle and there is a purpose for things happening the ways they do sometimes. I thanked him for the candy and his time and went on my way.

Although I couldn't change the fact that someone had come into my home and violated my peace of mind and the security of my home, I could change how I looked at the situation. I could have chosen to dwell on it and build up hate, anger, and all kinds of other feelings that would make my stomach churn and make me feel ill. I chose to set aside the events of the day and move on with life. My husband took my oldest son to the movies and the rest of us had pizza delivered and watched TV. OK, my daughter was on the phone with her boyfriend, but at least she was back to herself.

By looking at the positive side of things, such as no one was hurt, we can take these life lessons and build on them.