Just Another Piece of the Puzzle

I hate to harp on it, but I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason.  I've said it time and again.  Trials and blessings and milestones and tragedies -- they all come together at the end to create the perfect masterpiece they're supposed to.  It's why I have a puzzle piece tattoo on my foot: you look at a puzzle piece and it's a meaningless blob, sometimes ugly, but if you put it with the rest of the pieces, something beautiful comes together in the end every time. 

I still don't know what my masterpiece is going to end up looking like, but I'm putting more and more stock into it each day.  The things I've learned or am learning, the mistakes I've made or am making, the people I've met or am meeting... there's a purpose behind it all.  There are a few select people that I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, are supposed to be a major part of what's coming.  There are some from my past that, I am positive, I would not be the person I am today without.  And I know there will be more coming into my future that are integral in putting all the pieces together.

So often in my life, I've felt like giving up.  I have struggled so hard with something only to have it fail miserably and, in turn, I viewed myself as a failure for not being able to make it work.  I've learned I can't blame myself for that.  Like sitting down in front of the puzzle, it doesn't matter how often you try to shove two pieces together that don't fit -- they DON'T FIT.  It's never going to work.  So, you move on and try new things until you find the right combination.

Instead of wasting time trying to get the wrong fit to work, we have to open our minds and hearts to the possibility that we're not always right.  We don't have all the solutions.  Our path is not gospel.  It's the path OF the Gospel that is right.  The good news should be our leader, and we have to humble ourselves to find the right way to go.  Humble means to 'make low'.  When you're almost finished with a puzzle and you're missing a piece, where is the first place you look?

On the floor.

Down on your knees.

It's the first place we should start when we're trying to find the right path on our Journey, too.

Stephanie Jean