The Other Mother...

In the movie, Coraline, Coraline discovers a secret door while exploring her new home. Behind the door lies an alternate world that closely mirrors her own, but is better in many ways. She rejoices in her discovery until Other Mother and the rest of her parallel family try to keep her there forever.

I promise we'll come back around to Coraline.

I am struggling with life at the moment. There are some physical and mental challenges, daily life stuff, school, hard parenting moments... it's been a bundle of stress. Today in my institute class we were talking about challenges and ways to have faith and trust in the Lord while going through trials.

Our teacher brought up the question, how do we approach our trials with a soft heart, vs. a hard heart? I immediately recognized that I have been facing my struggles with a hard heart lately. A hard heart looks like frustration, anger, blame, resistance, and pride.

A soft heart looks like humility, kindness, forgiveness, being teachable, and willingness to learn from the challenge.

This life sometimes forces us to become the Other version of ourselves...

Our teacher shared this quote from someone she had talked to recently. "This life sometimes forces us to become the Other version of ourselves." Today I realized I've been the Other Mother for a hot minute.

The creepy Other Mother with button eyes, who snaps and becomes a scary version of her normal self when things don't go as planned. Sometimes life forces me into the Other version of myself, but I have the choice to decide how long I stay there.

I know we are all facing something. Your hard is different than mine, but it is still hard. It is easy to become wrapped up in our own stuff, and harder to see what is outside of us. I get stuck there a lot. I'm trying to break the 'me' bubble.

Another class member shared a really difficult time in her life and reminded us to show compassion and love to those around us who we may see going through their challenges with a hard heart. I am so grateful to my family and friends who give that love and compassion to me as I struggle.

Again... and again... I am trying to do better, to be better, to love better, and to forgive better. Thanks for being patient with me.