Learning From Experience

I read a saying this morning as I went through the materials that I read daily, experience is what you get when you don't get what you want. I understand the message behind this statement. I even agree with it. I've learned a lot from not getting my own way, from learning to accept things as they are..

But I believe that the most important lessons I have learned in life, and therefore my best experience gained, have come from the many situations where I went right down the path of my own choosing, did exactly what I wanted to do, received exactly what I wanted, only to realize that the road led to misery, pain and heartache. When I want what my Heavenly Father wants for me, I can have joy and peace in any situation, after the Gethsemane moment it takes to line my will up with His. But if I don't line my will up with His, then even if I get what I want, I don't.

I want to be happy joyous and free, to have and be loved, to be content with life and have a life worth living. In all the times that I have refused to surrender my will and line it up with God's I have had some fun, I have had pleasures, I have had times where distraction made life not so bad, but I have not had a life worth living. Only in surrender of my will and life can I find life. It's a paradox, but it's not complicated.