Somewhere I read once, "Experience is not what happens to a man, it is what a man does with what happens to him."

There are so many happenings in our life. I am sure you would agree that every day we are pressured on every side with experiences. Some of them are what one might term "good" others, "bad", some "happy", some "sad". What we do with them IS mighty important.

To take a sentence out of a verse, let me type,

"...stand firm. Let nothing move you..." I Cor. 15:58

With that in mind I share with you a bitter/sweet story. It all starts by visiting the French Academy of Science. There is a shoemaker's awl. It looks ordinary, but behind the little awe is this story. One day it fell from the shoemaker's table and put out the eye of his 9 year old son. Within weeks the child was blind in both eyes. (At that time the blind read by using large carved wooden blocks. Well, to continue the story. When the shoemaker's son grew up he devised a new reading system of PUNCHED DOTS ON PAPER. Yes, it was Louis Brille. He used the same awl that had blinded him for his invention.

EXPERIENCE IS NOT WHAT HAPPENS TO A MAN IT IS WHAT A MAN DOES WITH WHAT HAPPENS TO HIM.

I suppose the bottom line is that while the "tragedies" or "negative things"come into one's life, one can choose how they will affect them. I, for one, am working on that.

May we pray?

Lord, open our eyes as to how we see and perceive the happenings in our life. When they do strike us give this one the faith to say not, "Why did God allow this to happen", but "How will God use it." Bless this dear one especially right now, right where they are, in the name of Jesus.