What’s In Your Toolbox

Everyone has a toolbox for life. What tools we choose to fill it with will be the tools that we use for survival, fixing things, coping, and building. Every tool serves a different function, and is used for different situations. What do you have in your toolbox? What is the functionality of that tool? How can it be applied? To what? Is it working? Useful? A band-aid or temporary fix? Do we even have the right tools that we need or do we need to do an inventory check? Sometimes we can get frustrated if we are working on something and we don’t have the necessary tool to complete the work. It’s not so much the project itself as much as it may be the inadequacy of not having all of the tools we need; resulting in a project that is not completed to what it should be.

So, let’s do an inventory check. What might we need in our toolbox that works and what does not work. If we are looking at a project or task to be had what might we need to accomplish this? Is it talking to others who will support our cause or lend a listening ear? Is it music? What kind? How does that make us feel? Could be be keeping busy with adding more tasks to our “to do list” that will enable us to forget whatever the problem is that we are facing? Is it alcohol or drugs? How does this help; if at all? Putting a temporary fix such as a band-aid on an infected wound will not promote healing or get to the root of the problem. The wound will just fester, because it’s overlooked and become even more infected with the band-aid eventually falling off. Journaling? Is it negative venting?

The key points that I am bringing up for an inventory check is self-reflection. Rusty tools don’t work. Maintenance is important. If we don’t use it, we lose it. If we don’t know what we have then it doesn’t serve its purpose. Maybe, instead of being overwhelmed by the trials and projects in our life we should be looking at what we do have that might have been under-utilized or not used at all. Faith is one. God has given us His Word- which is filled with Promises, encouragement, healing, clarity, direction, etc. Often more times than not we don’t open up our Bibles when we are in the middle of going through something. We throw our toolbox in the air out of panic and the tools going flying. Left frustrated, confused, and angry, we don’t know where or what to turn to. Journaling God’s Promises can redirect our “stinkin thinkin” and back to God who says He will “handle it” if we allow Him to take the driver’s seat. Two people can’t steer a steering wheel at the same time and expect it to remain on the road. Finding a Christian Counselor or born-again Christian friend can help direct us back to what our primary focus should be in our spiritual walk. Listening to calming nature sounds or walking in nature can help us to remember that what we see on the surface is not all that’s out there. It provides time for self-reflection and admiration for creation. Looking up at the sunset or rainbow after a storm illustrates that there is a better and more beautiful picture than what we see dimly now.

I have been there before… running to anyone who would listen to my plight; which drained friendships or I was given bad advice. I’ve tried to numb myself with alcohol and drugs only to be let down again with it slowly destroying my body. I listened to music that resonated with my feelings at the time that didn’t make me feel better. Journaled angry thoughts to try to get it off my chest and mind. The tools I thought I had were not good tools at all. This is part of what led me to my spiritual walk of wanting something different, wanting new tools, and to learn how to use what I was given that I was yet unaware of. I attempted to do an inventory check and realized that I needed effective tools that would enable me to survive trauma, fix what was in my control, cope with healing, and rebuild my life again from what I once knew that was toxic and unhealthy by poor choices or others ill-will. What I found was that I started to use tools that were healthy and beneficial for me and apply them to areas where they would be best utilized. I realized that life does not always run the way we think it should, but it helps to know that we are not living life with an empty toolbox and that we can learn to use different tools for different functions. When we learn what works together, with the right applications, we can then learn that our toolbox is not a heavy burden to haul around but a gift used to make things beautiful.