Life Lessons on a Carousel

By Kimm Brett

One of our favorite summer activities is to spend the day at Knobel's amusment park. As a child and teen, my family went to the park for my Dad's company picnic. My brother and I always had a great time! Now, Jason and I take Faith to the park and we get to build family memories! One thing has changed.......the number of rides I will actually ride. ? With Faith, I have ridden the trains and in recent years I have ventured back to the Carousel. 

In my youth, my brother, mom and I would ride the Carousel. This Carousel has a feature that if you are on the outside, you have the chance to grab a ring on the way by. We would have a contest each time we rode to see who could get the most rings. A few years ago, Jason, Faith and I tried our hand at it and what fun to enjoy the same activity with them! There is the added bonus that if you get the brass ring, you win a free ride. In all my years going , I had never gotten the brass ring.

Well, this year Faith, her friend and I rode the Carousel. The ride started and we rode around a time or two until the bell sounded indicating rings were available to try and get. Well, my first pass was not successful - no ring. I had bumped the arm that houses the ring, but was not lined up with the ring itself to be able to grab one on my way by. On the 2nd pass....success! I got a ring, but it looked different than the ones I remembered. It seemed shinier. One of the ride attendants was suddenly beside and informed me I had gotten the brass ring. I was just as excited as I would have been as a child!

In thinking about that ride, I realized that if I had not missed the ring the 1st time around, the sequence of the rings would have changed and I would not have gotten the brass ring. How many times in life do we look at timing of events and view "misses" through our human lens as setbacks when the timing is actually a set-up for a blessing? Think about how our view would shift and our concerns would be reduced if we took this approach when a situation did not progress as we thought it should. We start seeing the situation for what it is - the timing being divinely set-up.

Another thought I had was that when I missed the first one, I considered what needed to be adjusted by me for the 2nd opportunity. I knew I had been misaligned, so I made an adjustment with how I reached for the ring. Perhaps there is something God is trying to help us adjust in life. The "miss" gives Him the opportunity to help us make that adjustment. This change positions us to be in a better place to obtain His blessings.

The last lesson is never give up! I could have decided to not even try for any rings as I had never gotten one in the past. However, I rode the Carousel over the years, enjoyed the time with my family and kept reaching for the rings. We need to learn to enjoy the journey and keep working towards what God has planned for us.

I love the fact that God can use everyday situations and shine a different light on them to provide a new perspective. Next time something does not happen as you would expect: remember that it is God's timing, see any adjustments that may be made and keep moving on the path He has set. He loves us and has blessings in store for each of us!