Back home in Michigan now, my mind and heart are often still in Hawaii, where two of my children and one grandchild remain. My stay there, acting as a nanny for Emerald, was positive in every way – except one.

Although I lived in a lovely guest room by myself, after the first few days I discovered I was going to have to share my space after all, with some very unwelcome roommates… three gecko lizards.

Hawaiians love their geckos. “They eat mosquitoes and other pesky insects,” I was told, “so we’re always glad to see them. We never hurt them.”

But being from gecko-free Michigan, I felt differently. Though there are no snakes in Hawaii (good news for my phobia), a lizard’s tail comes pretty close, not to mention its beady eyes.

My three roommates were different colors, so I could tell who was who – tan, grey, and green. Occasionally I’d see them together, climbing up and down my room walls on their sticky toe-pads with who-knows-what intentions. Their chirping, which sounds much like their name, would often startle me with how close it was, and I’d freeze until I could see where they were.

Because my bed was in the corner, I worried I might wake to find all three lined up on my pillow watching me. It was a terrifying thought and sometimes kept me from sleeping. Lizard-related dreams were frequent. And I’d often hear them scampering around the perimeter of the ceiling, just behind the beams.

In the end, though, I had to admit that my gecko roomies probably wouldn’t harm me, and despite disliking them, I would have to co-exist with them for the duration.

Life continually asks us to co-exist with situations (or people) we don’t like. God often sets it up that way on purpose, expecting us to handle it with grace.

Why would he deliberately do such a thing? Because working to co-exist with something or someone we struggle to get along with is good for us, tugging us away from a natural me-first mind-set. It forces thoughts about another, though what those thoughts are is up to us. We can fight against acceptance or work toward it, our choice.

I had no trouble being irritated with the geckos, but the truth was, most of my objections were in my own head – fabricated by my dislike of them. It didn’t help the situation to think negatively, though, and could have worked in my favor had I tried to accept them as the Hawaiians do. None of what I worried about came to pass anyway.

But all is not lost. Back in Michigan now, God is giving me a fresh chance to learn the same lesson. Once again I’m hearing the scampering of little feet around my bedroom ceiling, and not just three sets of them. This time there’s a whole army — of squirrels.

Let us pursue what makes for peace. (Romans 14:19)