A life lesson from a stink bug? Really? Yes, really. I went out on my deck a few days ago, probably to pet one of our outside cats. A short time later, I caught something out of the corner of my eye on my sweater sleeve and thought it was cat hair or some other type of fuzz. I started to grab it and instantly recoiled because it was not soft. I realized it was a stink bug. Aagh! 

 

I try to save all insects that accidentally wander into my home, but this was on my person! Still, I went to the front door, opened it and flicked the stinkbug off my arm. I could’ve done it more gently but in my opinion, he had crossed a boundary and entered my own personal space. He was lucky I spared him at all!

 

When we wander into territory where we don’t belong, we will often be forcefully ejected from that space. It’s not going to feel good and in fact, may be very painful. Yet we all need correction from time to time, even if we arrived in the wrong place quite innocently. We may have had no intentions to cross over into strange territory and the forceful removal could be the needed wake up call to help us realize we’ve gotten off track.

 

Correction is love and discipline is an act of caring. No, I don’t love or care for stink bugs but he didn’t deserve to die for his innocent mistake. I thought a strong flick was fairly generous. Ultimately he got what he wanted most which was freedom to roam outside where he belonged.

Correction often comes as a major life interruption. We don’t experience it pleasantly. But we must remember that when we surrender to what we can learn through a difficult process, redirection can yield what we really want, whatever that might be.

 

I’m currently finding myself in a place I never intended to be. And yet as personal challenges often do, I am being refined in this circumstance. I could ask myself, How did I get here? But the more fruitful question is, What do I need to do to get to a better place, even if all I can impact right now is my attitude about what's happening?

 

When life is flicking me around a little, I can choose to persevere, trusting that I’m being guided to what I want most of all.

 

If any of you are struggling similarly, whether the role you played in getting there was negligible or a large determining factor, I hope you can ask yourself the right questions. Remember the stink bug’s firm eviction from my home landed him in a better place, and somehow look for the gifts if you are being forcibly redirected in your own lives.

 

Let’s remind ourselves what we really want and then imagine how our present challenges are helping us get there. The other option is to just feel bad about it all, but what good is that? We are probably already feeling bad enough, so how about we start looking for the gifts?

 

I feel motivated to make a list of at least of 3-5 ways my current trials are helping me reach my ultimate goals, hopes and dreams. I will share three of them with you, which you can use if they apply to your situation:

I hope you’ll find the willingness to consider your situation’s gifts in a perspective-altering way. Gifts or grievances—we’ll find whatever we’re looking for.