Meet Beatriz Vaca.  She would be Bessie the Cow but she is Costa Rican. She was an obstinate obstacle! As we rounded a corner of the highway, there she was.  Just look at her face.  She had attitude!  She wouldn’t budge.  So, what did we do?  First, we had a good laugh and took her picture.  Then we honked and she just gave her ears a flap and kept staring us down.  We inched forward.  She didn’t move.  Eventually, we backed up a bit and managed to drive around her.

When I picture running the race God has set before us, I tend to picture a clean track.  But sometimes God has us running the hurdles.  Obstacles get in our way daily. We tend to take them too seriously.  Sometimes they are ridiculous, and we need to see the humor.  Sometimes they won’t budge.  Sometimes we can’t get around them.  Some, like disabilities and diseases, will be there forever just staring us down.  However, if we can step back, and look at it objectively we can usually find a way to continue the race set before us.  It may slow us down or cause us to take a different route. But when Beatriz won’t budge, and there’s no way around her, we may simply need to change our attitude and learn to live with her.

If you have a particularly stubborn obstacle that is affecting you emotionally or spiritually, please see resources on the Thriving Women page or check out hopeline.org.