Rainbows
We know rainbows are beautiful. In fact, I have to share this. I didn’t put this in my book and I’m sharing this for the first time. The most gorgeous rainbow I have ever seen in my life happened to be on the day of Chris’ mother’s funeral. It was an end-to-end rainbow as bright as I’ve ever seen, and it was my confirmation from God that everything’s going to be okay. How you see rainbows is up to you, but for me, that was exactly what I needed that day.
But here’s the thing. As beautiful as rainbows are, do you know how they’re created? I know you do. By rain, by lots and lots of rain…dreary, cold, dismal, wet rain. Sometimes it’s a light rain, but most of the time it’s a storm. It’s harsh. It could be damaging, windy. You know those days where you have to suffer through a rainy, miserable day. You want to crawl back into bed, put the covers over your head. But, I urge you to get out of bed.
You see…the only time to see a rainbow is after the storm is over. In other words, you have to experience a lot of rain. You hear that? You have to experience a lot of rain, a lot of problems in your life, a lot of things that may bring you down, in order to see a rainbow. It’s so true in real life, because we do have challenges, these rainy days. Some days, it’s just a light, wet rain. Other times, it feels like there’s a hurricane wiping up through our lives. But, the storms will come. It will rain a lot. I can guarantee you that.
The key is, though, is hang on. Get through those storms. Storms and challenges are here to teach us a lesson. I was just having a conversation today with somebody that we have to go through challenges in order to get beyond them. If we don’t learn the lesson, if we don’t learn the benefit or the value that’s coming out of this challenge that has been given to us, how do we get beyond it? Otherwise, that’s when you get stuck.
So, I encourage you to look at the challenges, look at the road blocks, look at the excuses that you might be using for not going after your dreams and not going after your goals, and take those and just get beyond them. They’re just challenges, and challenges are meant to be surmounted.
These challenges are bringing you closer to who you want to be, what you want to do, and what you want to have in life. Because if it’s the rain that produces the rainbows, then it’s the storms of life that bring us to a greater place of appreciation for what we already have. And, I do believe gratitude mixed with hard work, perseverance, and belief, and taking action is what’s going to bring you to the level of success that you’re aiming for in life.
But, it does start with you. So, I want you to think about when storms of life come to you, when challenges hit you, when somebody dies in the family, when you’re served with divorce papers, when you’ve lost your job, when you can’t pay the mortgage, when your children are going through really tough times in life, what are you going to do. How are you going to face that? Are your prepared? Do you have the goals? Do you have the mindset, the belief, the passion, do you have all that figured out so that you can be stronger as you go through those? I believe you can.
I believe you can conquer the storms. I believe you’re going to see a lot of rainbows. I believe all you have to do is get that umbrella out and wait out the storm.