A Choice to Make

 Every Tuesday when I'm in Bradenton, I volunteer in my church office, answering the phone while the staff his its weekly meeting.  While I'm there, I have a few tasks that I do.  This week I was asked to call a few people to let them know that their offering envelopes were ready to be picked up.  One lady that I called is one whom I've known for a long time.  She and her husband used to listen to my son recite the verses that he had learned in Awana.

She told me that she wasn't able to be in church but that she would stop by and pick them up on her way to or from a chemo session.  She had been recently diagnosed with multiple myeloma.  Along with that she was receiving injections in her eyes for wet macular degeneration.  What struck me as I talked to her was her attitude.  It was not one of complaining or self-pity.  She spoke with compassion about the other people that she saw at the cancer place.  She did say that she had said to her husband, "Who would have thought ten years ago that we would be in this situation?"  I found out this morning that she had a heart attack and died today.  While sad at her passing, we rejoice that she's with her Savior.

 After hearing about Sue, I received an e-mail from Steve Goodier, who sends out inspiring his stories.  His post today was about attitude.  I thought of Sue as I read it.  The title of his post if "A Choice to Make."  I believe Sue had made that choice.

"I believe that, at least to some degree, we can each exercise control over our outlook and attitudes. And the problem is - if we don't control our attitudes, they will surely control us.

One farmer took charge of his outlook. He did it by filling his mind with awe and gratitude. He found that doing this gave him more energy to work on problems and to tackle those things that needed his attention. His neighbor's outlook could not have been more different.

One summer morning he exclaimed, "Look at the beautiful sky. Did you ever see such a glorious
sunrise?"

She countered. "It'll probably get so hot the crops will scorch."

During an afternoon shower, he commented, "Isn't this wonderful? Mother Nature is giving the corn a drink today."

"And if it doesn't stop before too long," came the sour reply, "we'll wish we'd taken out flood insurance on the crops." And so it went.

Convinced that he could instill some awe and wonder in this hardened woman, he bought a remarkable dog. Not just any mutt, but the most expensive, highly trained and gifted dog he could find. The animal
was exquisite. It could perform remarkable and impossible feats that, the farmer thought, would surely amaze even his neighbor. So he invited her to watch his dog perform.

"Fetch!" he commanded, as he tossed a stick into a lake, where it bobbed up and down in the rippling water. The dog bounded after the stick, walked ON the water, and retrieved it. "What do you think of
that?" he smirked.

Her brow wrinkled. "Hmmm. Can't swim, can he?"

Not to sound too Pollyanna, but I agree with newscaster Paul Harvey when he said that he has never seen a monument erected for a pessimist. A stubbornly positive attitude can often make the difference between happiness and misery, between health and illness and even between life and death.

Viktor Frankl would have agreed. Dr. Frankl chronicled his experiences as a Holocaust and concentration camp survivor in his book MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING. In it he asserts something really quite remarkable. He says that everything can be taken from a person except one thing. What can never be taken away is the power to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances.

We can decide to choose our attitudes every day. That may be one of the most important decisions we will make. I don't want to neglect making that choice."

I believe Sue had made that choice.

photos taken in Savannah last spring