Circumstances

I have a plaque on the wall that says, "Circumstances don't make the man, they reveal him."  How often we have circumstances in our lives that we would like to blame on external events.  We observe the events and become victimized by them thinking that surely we didn't deserve the results.  It is a bit linke the Orange Juice Theory.  The circumstances reveal who we really are.  When you have trials and challenges how do you react?  What do those circumstances reveal about you?

None of us go through life without challenges and problems.  Do we let our reaction to those things define who we are or do we do our best to maintain balance and be the best person we can under the circumstances?  I have always admired people who could keep their head up and conduct themselves honorably even under tough circumstances. 

We love going to the local college basketball games.  We had a coach that had the only NCAA basketball championship team in Texas.  He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and had a movie made about his championship team, Glory Road.   He was a legend in our home town.  For years we sat near his wife during the games.  If Coach was winning everyone yelled for him and loved him but if his team lost or made mistakes in the games people were angry.  No matter what happened, his wife sat there in her seat with a smile on her face.  She may have been angry, frustrated or sad but she held her head high and always seemed composed.  She has been one of the people I admire most because of her wonderful attitude.  She assures me that she was not always thinking good thoughts but she never let her anger show. 

This was definitely a case where no matter what happened, the circumstances revealed who she truly was, a beautiful, gracious woman.  We would all hope that some day those words could be said about us.