Missed Fortunes

I read this story today on one of my favorite blogs:

there is an ancient Chinese story of a farmer who owned an old horse that till his fields. one day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer's neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, “bad luck? good luck? who knows?”

a week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. his reply was, “good luck? bad luck? who knows?”

then, when the farmer's son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. everyone thought this very bad luck. not the farmer, whose only reaction was, “bad luck? good luck? who knows?”

some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. when they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg, they let him off. once again, the farmer's only reaction was, “bad luck? good luck? who knows?”

there are no misfortunes in life. there are only missed fortunes… missed only because we fail to recognise and appreciate them for what they truly are: fortunes, experiences, learning opportunities, seeds of wisdom.

- author unknown

I thought it was a really neat story, and it got me thinking about some of my 'misfortunes' that turned into blessings. Some of them:

- If we hadn't been in the car accident in our first week of marriage and totaled it, we probably wouldn't have been able to make the payment on it, and it would have hurt our credit.

- If I hadn't had preeclampsia with Adam, and had to have a c-section as a result, and had gone into labor on my own, he would have died because of the vasa previa.

- If I hadn't had a c-section with Adam, and had to have a repeat one with Grace, the tumor might not have been found until it had spread and caused problems.

- If we had gotten all of the jobs with construction companies in the housing industry that Mike had interviewed with so much, and we had prayed so hard to get, he probably would have been laid off, due to the recent housing slump.

- If Mike had been paid more last year, we wouldn't have gotten as large of a tax return this year. We took the tax return we received, and used it to pay off a credit card, and are now taking that money and making extra payments on our car, to get it paid off this year.

I can think of lots and lots of other times, too, when I thought that a trial or some 'bad luck' had been horrible, and it turned into such a blessing later on down the road. I'm so thankful for a Heavenly Father who knows so much more than I do, and blesses our family so much.