Southern Girls Living Fearlessly - Punished or Pushed

I talked to my best friend on Saturday, but it wasn't our usual chit-chatty, wise-cracking, telling-on-the kids good time. She confided in me that her business is struggling. And when she says struggling, she means taking a cash advance from her credit card at an un-godly interest rate to make payroll. She means the bank threatening to call the loan on her start-up capital. She means customers bouncing checks and credit lines shut down. She means she's on the brink of business collapse.

With desperation in her voice, she asked me, probably rhetorically, "Why am I being punished?"

Now, just so you know, she and I have been best friends for 20 years, so she knows my ways. I have this nasty, annoying habit of always trying to point out the upside of down things. Another friend, who finds this trait to be a character flaw, once said to me, "Why is your glass always half full?"

I curtly replied, "It might always be half full, but the irksome thing is that I never know half-full of what."

"There you go doing it again," she snarfed. "Can't you just let me insult you without turning it around?"

While I know that wallowing in our worries together can be a bonding experience, I suspect that doing it too much or for too long breeds more worry and self-pity and saps any remnants of get-up-and-go. Besides, I just can't help myself. I want to believe the best., therefore I do. And I was certain that her punishment perspective was one that reflected her fear.

So I suggested, "Maybe you're not being punished. Maybe you're being pushed." Pushed toward something great that she wouldn't choose on her own. Pushed toward a door about to swing open and swallow her up in success. Pushed toward . . . her future, which was the thing she feared most right at that moment; causing her to see her circumstances as punishment.

How do you view the difficulties thrown at you each day? Punishment or a push?

TODAY'S ASSIGNMENT: Are you on the right path? Are you afraid of the future? Instead of ducking down and taking cover from perceived punishments heaped upon you by life, do everything you can manage the current events. Then, stand up tall, open your eyes and see the direction in which you're being pushed. You might be surprised to find that you've been headed there all along.

Lucy Adams is the author of two books: Tuck Your Skirt in Your Panties and Run and If Mama Don't Laugh, It Ain't Funny.

Read more Southern Girls Living Fearlessly HERE.