MIDWEEK MESSAGE – April 16, 2014

Life happens. Sometimes it comes in the form of good, sometimes it comes in the form of sadness, and sometimes it comes in the form of a challenge. It is not the external circumstances of our life that determine the quality of our life but how we respond to them. We can see ourselves as victims or we can use the challenges as opportunities to tap into strength that is not ours alone.

Recently at a campground we were staying, we met a man named Dick. Dick was 81 years old and had lost his wife a year ago after 47 years of marriage. You could tell that theirs was a great relationship but what impressed me most about Dick was that he had decided instead of sitting around feeling sorry for himself, he was going to go camping like he and his wife did.

He sold his fifth wheeler and bought a motor home and was trailing a vehicle. There was Dick at 81, setting up a campsite by himself (which is not that easy) and going on new adventures and meeting new people. He made a choice to not let what life handed him to keep him from appreciating and enjoying life.

There was, also, a woman at the campground, whose husband died when she was 73. She bought a smaller motorhome and for the past three years has been traveling by herself all over the country including Alaska.

What impressed me most about these two people was not so much their age, but that at a point when many people would give up on life, they chose to go and live it to the fullest.

Whatever is going on in our lives we have a choice. We can choose to be victims, to be filled with self-pity, to let fear paralyze us or we can choose to live life to the fullest, in spite of our doubts and fears.

What do you choose?

Quote of the Week:
“Live a good life. In the end it is not the years in a life, but the life in the years.” Abraham Lincoln
―
In One Spirit,
Arlene