Musings on 40: Lessons I've Learned

I'm not 40...yet. Give me another couple of weeks, though, and I'll be there.

One lesson I've learned, and am being reminded of recently, is that things don't always work out the way you think they will.

• Hopes unfulfilled
• Health fails
• Leaders fall
• People disappoint

But there's another side to this lesson - one that took me 38 years to learn: It's how you heal from brokenness that matters.

We all have things happen - sometimes it's later in life, sometimes it's far earlier than you'd wish. And when those hurts come, breaking our hearts and spirits, we're wounded. We're angry, grieved, troubled and confused. But eventually we heal and we move on.

Here's the rub - you can heal and become hard. Or you can heal and become strong. Hard can easily break again. Strong, on the other hand, can bend when the next storm comes, enduring and providing shelter.

And that's the biggest thing I've finally come to understand: Broken people are best equipped to help broken people.

It's no secret that The Boy and I have gone through some tough times. Things we didn't understand, that broke our hearts, that made us angry. It took us a long time to heal and there are many days that I'm sure I'll never be completely whole.

But I've realized that it's in my brokenness that I've found a compassion that I didn't know was possible. An ability to see and understand people, situations and problems that I never could before.

While I'd never choose the journey of hurt, since we all seem to take it, I'm grateful that I've healed the right way.

I'm strong. And that's a very good thing to know before you turn 40.