On The Plus Side

If you overheard others talking about you, what would you hear?  If you could see your own funeral, what would others speak or write about you?  How do you wake up in the morning? Go about your day? If you sat quietly and thought about it, do you tend to look on the plus side? Or the flip side – the downside?  Simply put, are you a glass is half full or a half empty type of person?

Optimism is a happiness magnet.  If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you – Mary Lou Retton

I read a story the other day about a petite woman who was 92 years old.  She was always well poised and a proud lady. She fully dressed each morning by 8 am with her hair fashionably done and her makeup perfectly applied – in spite the fact that she was legally blind.  Today, she was moving into a nursing home.  Her husband of 70 years had recently passed and the move was now necessary.  As she slowly maneuvered her walker to the elevator, a staff member provided a visual description of her tiny room including the eyelet curtains that were hung on her window,  “I love it” she exclaimed with a childlike enthusiasm.  “Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room yet… just wait” the staff member spoke out.  Then, Mrs. Jones gently spoke these words, “That does not have anything to do with it, happiness is something you decide on ahead of time.  Whether I like the room or not does not depend on how the furniture is arranged.  It is how I arrange my mind”

You see, the story isn’t just about being positive in every situation. It is also about having a positive attitude with regards to making good decisions and setting your mind in the right direction.  Mrs. Jones had set her mind ‘right’ by stepping into that nursing home with her heart and mind set on the plus side.  

If you follow the news or read the newspaper, headlines would paint a picture of today’s world as negative and unhappy.  Gone are the days of  ‘American’s Walk on Moon’ as inspiring and happy titles.  

Sidenote:  I searched ‘positive newspaper headlines’ and out of a page of newspaper headlines, that one was the ONLY positive one that came up.  And that headline was 1969!

I try to live my life on the plus side.  Sure, I have my ‘days’, where I honk at a car not moving forward fast enough at a green light or how I can get impatient shopping down our one-way grocery aisles and the person ahead of me does not move to the side to let you pass by.  But…. generally, my days are filled with joy, happiness and positivity.  When I am working, I smile and welcome each and every person so they feel loved.  If someone needs help reaching an item at the grocery store, I offer help.  I wake up smiling. I go to bed thanking God for my family and the blessings He gave me that day.  I live life deciding my day will be great right from the start.  

How do I do that?  As you have most likely read from some previous blogs (Be A Light, How They Remember You, and On The Flip Side), I start my day off with reading a devotional.  I have a variety of themes I have read over time, but I tend to pick topics like:

• Love
• Patience
• Peace
• Hope
• All Things Are Possible
• Fully Connected Marriage
• 5 Days To Freedom From Anger
• Joy Over Stress
• Start Your Day Rifht
• Get Out Of Your Head
• Making Today Matter

Those are just a few examples, but there are a few authors, speakers, and pastors I enjoy reading:

• Joyce Meyer
• Joel Osteen
• Jimmy Evans
• Kirk Cameron
• Candance Cameron Bure
• Jim Daly
• Sadie and Korie Robinson
• Rachel Hollis

For me, waking up on the plus side, being positive and happy is a choice. A choice you can make too.  I don’t believe it was by accident that you read my blog today.  Maybe you needed that one last push to make that change. To make that choice to start your day right.    

Need some encouragement or help?  Search any of the devotionals or speakers on the lists above and daily, they can provide uplifting, inspiring and encouraging words.  Or, click on the link below and I can be that friend you are needing right now.