I was going somewhere with my daughter recently. Normally, I’m playing my music, and she’s wearing her headphones listening to hers. I don’t know if she forgot her headphones or what the deal was, but we talked.

Her job at home is to do the dishes. She doesn’t like doing them. I mean, it’s been a struggle with many “lectures” to get her to do them.

Somehow, the conversation turned to chores, and she asked me if I had noticed she was trying to have a better attitude. She told me that the other day she had to load the dishwasher three times. She sat on the couch afterward and thought, I don’t want to load the dishwasher three times a day, but I’m not going to complain about it. I’m just going to do it.

She went on to explain that she doesn’t like doing the dishes, but she knows they have to be done anyway. So she decided she wasn’t going to grumble and complain because it doesn’t help anyone.

Blank stare.

Was she quantum leaped?

I was amazed that, at 13 years old, she had come to realize that a great deal of life is about doing things we don’t like, and that how we choose to approach the situation affects the quality of our lives.

In that moment, I wasn’t proud because she finally accepted doing the dishes. I was proud because she had discovered something that takes many adults years to learn.

One of the greatest joys of being a parent is watching your child mature without life having to teach every lesson the hard way.

Life can be full of so many unwanted circumstances.

Sometimes they’re little inconveniences.

Sometimes they’re soul-crushing seasons.

We don’t always get to choose what happens to us, but we do get to choose how we respond.

We can either let those things bury us, or we can step onto the dirt as it’s poured on us.

We can choose whether we remain defined by what happened to us or become someone who moves forward.

We can let life’s difficulties chip away at us, or we can allow them to shape us into someone stronger.

Challenges in life are going to come.

That day, my daughter thought she was talking about dishes. I think she was talking about life.

Our response is one thing we can choose.

Choose wisely.