Everything Is Going to Be Okay

Our family is split into two categories: Pessimists and Optimists. And then I guess those who can slide either way. My dad is way over on the Optimistic side of things. He’ll eat the blackened chicken, and claim that it is good. He’ll slap a bandaid on the cut and tell us it’ll be better by the time we get married. He’ll whistle while he works and take his time doing things. Hannah is a lot like him, and even Ruth sometimes.

And then you have my mom’s side. And, unfortunately, my side too. The Pessimists. We don’t like the blackened chicken, and freak out over the minor cuts. We think that every mole is potentially cancerous and every door-to-door salesman most likely murderous. Very rarely do we relax and find comfort in the knowledge that everything is going to be okay.

Case in point: When driving the other day, I got honked at by another car. I mean, okay, I was to blame and probably could have done things differently, but this still freaked me out. I won’t even get started on how much it disturbed my mom. She thinks we almost died. Even Hannah crossed to the dark side and dared to criticize my driving skills. We were all pretty pessimistic.

Our depressed and morbid thoughts led us to talking about how close we come to dying every time we (I!) drive. It was kind of a freaky conversation. But then, the more I thought about it, my perspective began changing. We didn’t almost die! We will die when it is our time, and not a moment sooner. There’s no “almost” about it!

Life is full of those moments that make you freeze, rewind, and walk away wondering how you got through it alive. But you know what? We get through it alive because God wants us to keep living. We freak out and spazz all over the place when, the reality is, everything is okay. We will live as long as God wants us to live, and we will be fine until then. We may come across some close calls, but nothing will happen to us that will catch Him by surprise. I think that’s a pretty good reason to be optimistic!

Oh, and by the way, the events of this blog were totally overdramatized. I can’t believe all of you have such little faith in my driving abilities. Sheesh…

-Rachel

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