Anyone out there a fixer?
When something is broken, you want to jump in and repair it? When you hear of a need, you want to meet it? When a problem is presented, you immediately want to find a solution?
People like that drive me nuts! Probably because I am one of those people.
A few months back, I had a problem which I presented to my hubby. When I started, he interrupted and asked,
do you want me to help find a solution or just listen?
I just wanted him to listen …
so I poured out the story for him, but I was mentally distracted, for his question caused me to question the help I offer to my friends, family … to him. Because, like him, I am a fixer, and fixers fix … listening isn’t really part of our natural response system.
Last week I fixed something in our home that had been irritating to me for years. This fix took maybe a total of five minutes. There is a frame with various pictures of our family in it. The picture of our son was too narrow for the slot it was in, so there was white emptiness on either side of it. The other day I took it off the wall, cut a piece of black card stock to fit the opening, attached the picture in the center and hung it back up. Now there is no glaring white lines to pull my eye to it as I walk by … problem solved.
But …
those white lines … they drew my eye to that picture, like a magnet, reminding me of the imperfect fit of the picture to the opening … but also drawing my eye to the image of my son, reminding me to pray for him.
This story of the imperfect picture that reminded me to pray and the one of hubby asking if I wanted a solution of to just listen … they niggle at my ‘fixer’ instincts. They remind me that sometimes we need to not just see a problem to fix, but also a purpose in the problem … a learning in the midst of the problem … a creativity born out of the broken.
We live in a world full of problems, brokenness, heartaches, struggles … and we cannot fix them all … but we can always listen, we can always pray.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding.”
Proverbs 3:5
itsawonderfilledlife 