Someone might look at this photo and see a hand full of weed spores ...
Whereas someone else might look and see a bouquet full of wishes.
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Over the past several weeks, I've been struggling with a very difficult personality.
A personality that does not mesh well with my own, nor apparently any other carbon-based life forms.
A personality that possesses the ability to extract the sunshine out of a sunny day.
This person is outside of our family. A person who is a fixture in my life that I have no choice but to interface with and for as much as I've tried to adapt and have actually prayed for them, I feel like I am being challenged to my very core.
As my mother taught me, long ago ... that's just how it is with life. There will be people that will cross our paths who make us abundantly happy. And, there will be people who will cross our paths that we'd like to hit in the knees with a stick.
But We Mustn't.
For we are good and kind and .... where's my wine and chocolate?!
Every day, I make a conscious effort to create happy moments and be a positive role model for our children. Ultimately, I've determined that the type of person I strive to be isn't one who is arrested for knee cap battery.
So with that in mind, I'm sharing a poem, that I've shared before - but which these days - I have committed to memory because I feel like my strength largely depends upon it.
To Chuck Swindoll, thank you for your brilliant words that not only ground me, but force me to put down my virtual stick and morph in to a vessel of peace.
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness of skill.
It will make or break a company ... a church ... a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way [and might even attempt to suck the sunshine out of a sunny day]. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.
And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our attitudes.Despite what the world throws at us, may we all find it within ourselves to play in harmony on that one string we have ... today and every day.
Hallelujah. Amen.
