INSIDE MY HEART

So I finally have gotten around to reading again. I love to read. When I was a kid, I almost always won the summer reading program as the top reader at our local library. I just couldn't get enough of it. With kids and a busy life, sometimes it's very hard to sit down and concentrate on a book. Telephone ringing, kids yelling, tv blaring, etc..... it's all too much sometimes.

Anyhow, I came a cross a sale at Walgreens the other day that I couldn't pass up and I found this book. Robin McGraw, Inside My Heart, Choosing to Live with Passion and Purpose. Yes, she is the wife of the ever popular Dr. Phil. I knew I could probably gain a lot from this book, not only by learning something about life, but getting something humorous out of it. I was right.

Today I came across a section of the book that really inspired me and made me open my eyes more to a lot of things in life. If I had read this book two years or so ago, my life may be totally different now.

At one point in the book, Robin talks about how a family member of her husbands always upset her and made critical remarks to her about various things. As most women would do, Mrs. McGraw turned to her husband for comfort, but yet he gave her none....at first. His words to her were always "this person did have the right to say that." And as I would be, Robin was at a loss for words. However after repeated attempts to get him to side with her, she finally realized, once he explained himself, that he was right. The essence of what he was telling her was You can't control other people and what they say to you. People have the right to think and say whatever they choose, but you have the right not to take it to heart, and not to react. When you allow someones words to upset you, you are letting them control how you feel and how you think. You have the right not to get upset.

Wow! I read this (which by the way, is not quoted word for word above from the book, just what I got out of it) and I had to read it not only once again, but several times. I don't think anything has been said that could be more true! Some of the things that I have gone through in my own life, be it from the teenage years, up until the very place that I am now, could very well have made such a difference.

I am only now half way through the book, and this is, by far, is not all that I have 'learned' but something that really made an impact on how I will live my life from this day forward. I am hoping that it can really make a difference for me and help me to grow and change to understand others and myself.