The Greatest Lesson

I was blessed with the idea to ask a very broad question to some of the people that I would speak with today at the Soup and Serenity program. I was hoping that I would be able to get a few candid responses and use their answers as inspiration for a possible future blog. I respect the hard earned experience that accompanies every person's life story and believe that we can learn a lot from our elders. While engaging in sincere conversations, I found a way to simply ask, "What is the greatest lesson you have learned over the course of your lifetime?"

I was quite surprised by the various responses to this powerful question. Some people seemed to be caught off guard, while others jumped at the chance to share their wisdom. A few people voiced some concern about getting so personal, but some wanted to think about it throughout the week and share their thoughts at next week's program. Overall, it was just wonderful to connect with others through amazing life stories and listen to first hand accounts of some priceless lessons.

During the most touching conversation of the day, I felt a connection to a woman as she spoke about the pain she had experienced and dealt with after a long relationship had ended. Just like she was describing, I knew what it was like to fall victim to depression after losing someone I thought was the person for me. But as she continued her story, the tone of her voice began to change and a smile emerged shining with the grace of God.

She went on to say that she ended up developing a deeper relationship with God and found peace within herself after overcoming that challenging time in life. She now looks back on what seemed to be the most horrible thing that ever happened to her as a true blessing. She continues to live a very blessed life with a loving husband of 36 years and 3 healthy children that have went on to give her 7 beautiful grandchildren. She concluded passionately that, "Sometimes what seems to be the worst can easily become the greatest."

Her greatest lesson in life is definitely one that carries over into all of our lives. We never know what God is doing in our lives and should trust that he is always working with a much greater plan in mind. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from other's experiences and look forward to using this same question during future conversations. I encourage everyone to take some time to identify people in life that may have valuable life lessons to share. By asking the right questions, we may be able to avoid having to learn the hard way - which could just turn out to be the greatest lesson of our life.