Why do bad things happen in our life?

That is a really loaded question.

We could get into a big theological debate about God and our purpose and His purpose and eternal life and on and on and on...

But I think the more important question to argue, or debate, or just think about is

What do you do when bad things happen in your life?

A persons true character is tested and revealed when they go through the hard parts and the bad things in their life.

Some people have really horrible events that happen to them. Others not so many, or not as bad.

Notice that there are some people that work themselves into a tizzy because of a real minor issue?

The other day I was talking to one of my third graders said she was having a bad morning. I emphasized with her and inquired into her reasons for saying that her morning was bad. She said that the soccer game was bad at recess that morning, so I asked her how she knew it was bad.

She looked at me with a puzzled expression and said because it wasn't good.

So I asked her how she knew the other games were good games and not bad games.

She looked at me puzzled again, so I asked her again:

"How do you know that today's game was bad and not good?"

"Because I've had good games before and this was not one of them," she told me matter of factly.

"Ok," I consented "But what if you never had a bad game ever, how would you know your games are good?"

"what?"

"If you never had anything bad happen to you, if it was all good, how would you know it was good? What would you compare it to?"

She thought for a moment, and decided life would be sweet. So I asked her how she would know. If you never had anything bad happen to you, how could you compare it to anything. We know that things in our life are good because of the bad that happens.

Sometimes the bad we know about isn't always ours, sometimes we learn from others, but we all know that you can never truly know how something can hurt you until you experience it yourself.

And that is what I have learned about life so far.

I can only enjoy the good moments in my life because I go through the hard and painful times too.

And how I act and react in those times is a true test of my character.

sigh... vacations are nice. The sad part is coming home. Coming back to reality. But that is part of life. Or really what life is.

But vacation was nice. A nice little reprieve from life. My fam and I (and Ben's girlfriend) went to the beach and hung out there for a few days. The weather was pretty nice, not the horrible Oregon winter weather we usually get. We didn't get trapped in the flooding, but just by a hair. And we had some snow on the way home which made the drive really beautiful! Enormous Douglas firs with snow all over them.