Sometimes Things Don't Go Exactly Like You Thought

Does anyone besides me love those Sarah, Plain and Tall movies?  I love every single one of them - have watched them multiple times!  And I really love that apron Sarah wears - do you remember it?  It's long and it doesn't tie; instead, the back somehow crosses over like a wrap dress.  Last year I looked and looked for a pattern for that apron and even appealed to my friends on the net.  Then, finally, my friend Ida here in town found the pattern for me and I was so excited!  I just knew I would make that apron and turn into Sarah - tall and willowy and elegant looking.  I let the pattern lay here a while just enjoying the anticipation of it all.  This week I made it.  It is SO not what I pictured.

Oh it's ok, don't get me wrong.  It's just not what I dreamed about at all.  First of all, the pattern runs really large.  Really large.  I figured an apron, it needs to be roomy, right?  So I used size large, but not extra large.  Then I sewed it together and it was like a balloon!  So I took it up some but it's still too big.  Then it said to use binding on all the edges.  I don't remember Sarah's having binding.  :(  And to bind it you don't do that like a quilt...you use the other kind of binding (double fold?) so I had to make that but it's just too wide to suit me.  And I chose white because I thought it would give it a nice fresh look but mainly I think it just looks like white binding added on. And, here's the worst part, you have to put it on over your head.  I never thought about that!

That apron is just fine.  It's serviceable.  It will definitely cover me up when I do housework.  If I ever do housework.  But it's not my dream.  Life is like that sometimes isn't it?  I just finished a study of David in the Bible and that apron reminded me of him.  David was a shepherd, just a shepherd.  Then boom he was crowned king when he was 15 or so.  But he didn't get to really be king for another 14 or 15 years.  And when he was king he messed things up pretty bad...had an affair, killed the husband, didn't discipline his kids, one child killed another child, etc.  I bet he didn't dream he would be that kind of king, but he made some really bad choices!  Life takes twists and turns we don't expect.  We plan a garden, dig the soil, plant the seeds, and a drought kills half of it.  We go to buy our first house and it turns out the money we think will buy a mansion will only pay for a ranch style.  We take a job thinking we'll quickly work our way up the ladder and we somehow get stuck at rung three.  We plan for Harvard for our firstborn and they decide to be a blue collar worker.    All of those things are just fine but aren't what we planned.  What do we do then?

Well, we can get mad and never dig another garden because the last one only gave us a few tomatoes.  But we'd miss those delicious, juicy tomatoes.  We could get depressed because we don't have a big fancy house like our friends, or we could savor the love that went into the buying of the one we have and spend our extra time making it into the beautiful home we want.  We could be bitter about not making it to CEO and make everyone around us miserable or we could enjoy the work we do and the people we work with.  We could shame our child for not being who we want them to be or we could rejoice in the wonderful person they are.  Life is all about choices and the biggest choice we make is attitude.  I'm gonna' love that apron even though I didn't turn into a tall, willowy, elegant Sarah.  I'm going to wear it cleaning house today.  And it's going to remind me that I might not be Sarah but I have choices about the way I live my life.  I can live it with joy if I choose joy.  And I choose joy.