After a lifetime of hardships and tragedies, including the death of my only son four years ago, I’ve had to work hard to keep a positive outlook. The last couple years have taught me to try to find something worthwhile, even if only a splinter of goodness, when things go terribly wrong.
The word gratitude for me stands for: “Graceful attitude.”
I’ve learned that when our attitude includes bits of thankfulness it somehow transforms an otherwise miserable situation into gratitude, and that very gratitude can help us find a miracle in every situation.
My version of looking for the silver lining.
The Monday before Christmas a huge section of my neighborhood experienced a power outage for about an hour and a half which doesn’t sound too bad, except that I was babysitting a 2 year old child, and each power outage means no community-well water (that’s country living). The power continued to go off, then pop on as many as 8 hours later until we went completely black for good December 23rd. This time the power company predicted power outage for several days. A massive snow storm hit our heavily wooded Northwest area downing hundreds of trees, knocking down power lines, and leaving thousands of homes in the dark. Continue reading
HIS EYE IS ON THIS SPARROW TOO Still Learning to Lean on God 