Lessons ,by Mr David Osborne. 

  I’m sure you have heard it said many times, we are all on this earth to learn and I’m sure you know as well as I do that there are some very hard lessons and some very tough teachers.

I would like to share some of the lessons I feel I have learned over the years.

I have learned that it’s not what you have in your life but who you have in your life that counts.

I’ve leaned that it’s not what happens to people that’s important, it’s how they react to it that’s important

I’ve learned that it’s taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.

I’ve learned that you can keep going long after you think you can’t

I’ve learned that learning to forgive takes practice.

I’ve learned quite a lot of other things too, but have you ever wondered how we have learned so much?

We have learned so much because we have been taught from the day we were born. We entered this `Life School` for that very reason, to learn, to evolve, and we’ve had many teachers since we were born.

That cup of piping hot tea you reached for when you were a child! That cup of tea was one of your teachers. I bet there’s not many who have put their fingers in a cup of piping hot tea more than once in their lifetime. Who would have thought that a simple cup of tea could teach you a lesson that you would never forget for the rest of your life.

But more recently, how many people have been to a party and accidentally knocked over a glass of wine? I bet we’ve all done that more than once. You should have learned to be more careful after the first time, but you didn’t. Why? Because there was no pain involved like there was with the piping hot tea.

If the wine had been acid, if it could have burnt your skin and left you scared for the rest of your life, you would have learned your lesson the first time, you would never have spilt a glass of wine again.

We always ask why we have to go through so much pain and suffering in our lives. I’m trying to demonstrate why we need that pain in our lives, because pain is one of our finest teachers. I can’t remember the last time I put my fingers in a cup of hot tea but I can remember the last time I spilt a glass of wine!

When I look back over painful experiences and things I would rather forget, I can now see that they were not stumbling blocks put there to stop me going forward, they were stepping stones, put there to help me go forward.

I was being moulded and shaped, I was being educated and sensitised. I didn’t know it at the time but I was laying solid foundations upon which I could build in the future. I recently wrote a little message on a Bookmark that I was giving to a friend, It read…`Turn your stumbling blocks into stepping stones and they will guide your footsteps to wherever you need to be`…and I believe that to be true.

I believe where we are at this point in our lives is exactly where we need to be. For some there will be many more stepping stones ahead of them and for others there will be many more stumbling blocks.

When the darker chapters of my life were over, I was eventually able to look back to see what I could learn from them, because I felt it was important to take something positive from such negative experiences. I felt I owed it to myself.

I have to admit I learned a lot about myself, about other people, about soul growth and about life in general. Although it was of little comfort to me at the time.

Hopefully if we find the lessons and learn from them, we won’t have to be taught that particular lesson again. So it’s in our own interests to spend a little time reflecting on our past, although at times it’s not an easy thing to do.

I’m happy to say, I don’t come across stumbling blocks anymore, just stepping stones, and each one has guided my footsteps further along my pathway to the places I needed to be and I learned to keep on walking, leaving the past where it belongs, in the past! It’s up to each of us to decide whether to keep on walking, leaving the past where it belongs, a long way behind us.

I read something one time that said…`Do you know why God put peoples faces on the front of their bodies? Faces are at the front so that people can see where they are going, not where they’ve been. And if you think about it, if you kept going back to read over and over the early chapters of a book, you would never get to the happy ending, would you?

I know of many people who have suffered terribly throughout their lives, but they too have learned from it. Through their own pain they learned to feel other peoples pain. As a result they went on to become Healers and Mediums, Counsellors and Therapists, Nurses and Carers, they became `Givers` It made them the people they are today and if it wasn’t for these people, perhaps there wouldn't be any `Givers` in life. Perhaps they would be the sort of people who would tell you to go away and pull yourself together, and we all know people like that!

Looking back, I know I wouldn't be the person I am today if it wasn’t for pain and the lessons it has taught me. I’m not saying I welcome pain with open arms, far from it! Pain hurts, and none of us want to hurt. But isn’t it better to open your eyes every morning and see stepping stones ahead of you? Rather than open your eyes every morning and see nothing but stumbling blocks!

I think so!

So let us all try and turn negative into positive, tormentor into teacher, stumbling blocks into stepping stones and hopefully, turn suffering into service. The choice is ours.