Square peg in a round hole...

How many of you remember those "work bench" toys when you were a kid...the kind that had different shaped holes cut out for you to hammer the pieces through...you had the round hole, square hole, star hole, etc...My mom always told me how I would force the pieces through, regardless of the shape hole...what ever one i landed on...was the one the piece was going through...be it through me hammering, stomping or smashing...sometimes the pieces would fit through the wrong hole with out problems or sometimes I would just land on the right hole...I bring this up because I have been thinking about how people fit in their lives...be in volunteering, working, whatever...I think our lives are alot like that work bench. God has designed us for as specific part...a special need...and we have a special place in this world...however, many of us take the route I did as a child and just try to force ourselves into a situation..even when we clearly are not intended for that. Sometimes it feels like we found our fit because things are going smoothly only to find out later that we are in the wrong spot (ie. the circle piece sliding through the square hole)...while the fit may seem fine, we then find ourselves working harder to increase our weaknesses, rather than increasing our strengths that God has given us. Then there are the times that we take our time...pray...and figure out where we belong. This idea helps to explain alot for me. It explains alot of the problems with volunteers...many of them are circle pegs being hammered into star holes...just because we need a star piece...it explains alot of the problems with marriages...with careers...with everything. If we all took our time, prayed, we believe we would find our "hole"...but in our fast paced, results now world...i think we all go "little eric" style and just hammer away...trying to make it fit "our" way.

THE SKY IS FALLING!

Okay...so its not really falling...as many thought it would. Yes, Obama won the election...did you really think things would come crashing down? Am I happy? NO. Bitter? Absolutely not. Its not like things were going awesome and everyone is happy. The economy sucks. Who would have thought people would get frustrated and vote for the other party? Go figure! :) What I don't understand is people that are hoping for drastic change. Obama first and foremost wanted to be president...do you think he wanted to be president for 4 years? Not a chance. He wants all 8 years. So what you ask? To me that means he is going to do and say things to play nice. If he goes off the liberal deep end, he will push this country back to its conservative roots and I think he is smart enough to know that. I see him finding one, maybe two things he promised in his campaign to try and push through in the first couple of months...but the reality is this...he is in a tough position...times are rough and he is about to get a serious dose of the reality that is being the President on the United States. I for one and going to take a page out of my 4 year old daughters book..(a little back story here...Jade came home from school with a "My vote counted" sticker, so Danielle asked her..."who did you vote for"...she said, "nobody, i did not know who they were" (another sidebar...if only our country would take this stance...and not vote blindly just because the "other kids" were); but I do know who Kaitlyn (her best friend at school )voted for, she voted for "Mobama"....and she explained that Ms. Little told them to watch the news and follow the election, a little weird to ask kindergarten in my opinion, but we did it anyways...this led to many many questions...regarding who mom and dad were going to vote for...why we were voting for them and why was everyone so angry...so we just had an awesome night explaining all of this to a 4 (emma got very interested) and 5 year old)...so...Emma wakes up, comes running down stairs and I have the news on and she hears Obama...she turns to me as says "Did Obama win Dad?"...yes..."I hope God can change him, I am going to pray"...what a thought? What if instead of complaining...we actually trusted that God knows whats going on and we trust him?