Life's Toolbox

When we are young we are taught many lessons by those who raise us.  Most of  what we learn becomes our foundation of tools that we will use at one point or another throughout our lifetime.  As young children we are all sponges when it comes to absorbing all that is new and emulating those who were our role models, which primarily were our parents and immediate family.  Many of us were taught great qualities such as; kindness, compassion and honesty along with hard work and determination.  We were given lots of tools that became part of our life's toolbox which defined who we grew up to be as adults.  How we were provided each of these things was usually through a lesson that may have been intentional or not, however, the outcome always had a moral to the story.  As time went by, our sphere of influence shifted from the family to friends or other outside entities that we might have felt a strong connection to.  Those outside forces either helped reinforce what was taught to us by our first teachers or sometimes they provided us with alternative ways of doing things that were not necessarily what was right.  I remember a great lesson that came via the honesty tool, when my older neighbor who I thought was really cool and I wanted to be like, took me to the local Boys and Girls Club one afternoon after school.  My grandmother at the time was helping raise me and although she did not think it was a good idea to let me go across town with the neighbor, I promised to be back at home at a specific time.  Time for a young kid is not necessarily precise and especially if you are out having fun, everything seems to go by in an instant.  I ended up staying well past my intended time and since these were the days before cell phones, my grandmother had no way of contacting me until I got home.  I can recall the feeling of having fun quickly shifting as I turned the last corner before I got to my house.  All of sudden, I wanted to come up with all of these great excuses which all lacked any bit of honesty.  When we finally arrived at home my neighbor waved goodbye as he made his way up to his house and then I looked at the door towards my house, where I saw my grandmother standing outside.  I could see that there was relief and also disappointment in her eyes and all of the potential excuses or lies that I had thought of in my head came to a screeching halt.  I knew then and there that I could not handle the look of disappointing my grandmother or anyone else for that matter and after I walked in the house with her, I knew that this lesson would forever remain in my toolbox.  Usually the longer you live, the bigger the toolbox and it is interesting to look back at how we obtained some of these fine tuned instruments via our life lessons.  As you think about your intended future, think about what you have accumulated in your lifetime and how you can expand and share these great tools with others.  Whether it is speaking to a small child or a new acquaintance, I challenge you to continue to tell your stories of how you acquired your toolbox.  You will be pleasantly surprised to reminisce about what you have accomplished and the many lessons it took for you get to your current state in life.