A Goof Off Opportunity

Life is constantly throwing challenges and tough situations at us. So I admit that many times I have asked myself in anger and frustration, “Why is this happening to me?” Well, yesterday I had to tackle some small challenges, but in doing so I just might have figured out the reason why.

I bought a new picture frame at the store and when I got home I couldn’t get the price sticker to come off cleanly. (I never will figure out why they put those stickers in the worst possible place.) Then I remembered that I have some stuff called “Goof Off” which cleans the goo off of any type of material. Using Goof Off I was able to clean the sticker goo off that picture frame in less than a minute. That was good!

Then I remembered that my wife had bought a new purse the day before and had trouble with stickers stuck to the black leather strap. Using the Goof Off spray and working delicately so as not to damage the leather, within about 10 minutes I was able to clean it perfectly. She was really happy that I solved a problem for her and of course, having a happy wife makes me feel really good!

Later that same day as I walked out to the carport area, I thought about our neighbor. She had recently pulled into her carport too close to the white steel support post and it looked like she scratched her car all the way from the front wheel well to the back passenger door. Her black SUV looked awful with white paint marks from the post all down the side. I couldn’t tell if it was dented, but I wondered if that Goof Off stuff might help. So I grabbed the bottle and a couple of rags and went to work scrubbing the side of her car. It took me nearly an hour of hard rubbing and I was sweating profusely, but I managed to get all the white paint off. Since there were no dents, the car looked good as new. When my neighbor came out to the carport and saw that all the damage was gone from her car she couldn’t believe her eyes. She thanked me over and over and I left there feeling great!

And that got me thinking… Challenges are really more like opportunities because the size of the challenge is directly proportional to the joy you feel when you overcome it. Maybe when God gives us bigger and bigger challenges…He’s doing it so that we can experience ever increasing joy!

When written in Chinese the word "crisis" is composed of two characters -

one represents danger and the other represents opportunity. 

 ~ John F. Kennedy

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

I don’t think anyone has ever accused me of being brilliant or a genius. But some people probably think I’m pretty smart because over the years I’ve been able to build several successful companies. Well, appearances can be deceiving. Anyone who watched me last week would definitely not think I’m brilliant…In fact, they might think I’m pretty stupid.

·    I hired a screen door company last week to install an “Invisi-Screen” door on our side kitchen door to allow the breeze to keep our kitchen cool. It was new and clean and fairly invisible and sure enough the very next day I walked right into it and nearly destroyed it. Stupid!

 

·    The ocean has had some huge waves lately and it tore out a big chunk of our beach leaving a 4 foot drop off just past our fire ring. So Saturday as I was raking the beach, walking backwards to drag the sand rake and smooth the sand, I forgot about the cliff and fell backwards off the cliff right onto my backside, nearly killing myself. Stupid!

·    Later that day after watching a beautiful sunset, I headed inside with the plates and drink cups off our patio and because I was trying to carry too many things at one time, I spilled a whole glass of ice tea onto our formerly beautiful Persian Rug. Stupid!

Okay, so maybe sometimes I can be smart and sometimes I can be stupid and maybe that’s what we need to remember about our family, friends and neighbors. The world is never black and white and neither are people. We have our good days and we have plenty of things we do well. And then we have our bad days and some things we don’t do so well. All of us would do well however…to not judge each other too quickly.

And that got me thinking…. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to pray for wisdom once in a while too….because wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age, sometimes age just shows up all by itself!

 Life is hard. But it’s a whole lot harder when you’re stupid.

~ John Wayne (Actor and Occasional Philosopher)