An excerpt from my book, “One Arm One Leg 100 Words, Overcoming Unbelievable Hardships”
People tell me that I am just as amazing as she is. I don’t think so, but they insist that the way I communicate with Charlene (charades, 20 questions, Pictionary… whatever it takes), is interesting and entertaining to witness. Charlene is the real star, however. She has made the lemons that life has given her into the yummiest glass of lemonade, just what you would expect from a great gourmet cook. For Charlene, quitting is just not an option!
It’s all about attitude
We have discovered that life is an exciting journey, so you really have only two options on this road called life, either choose to enjoy the journey, or decide to be miserable.
I saw a very inspirational movie that came out several years ago called Life Is Beautiful, written, directed and starring the Italian actor, Roberto Benigni. It is a foreign film that won three well-deserved Academy Awards. It is about a real-life prince charming who met the woman of his dreams, and he would do everything in his power to sweep her off her feet. Their fairy tale life continues as they have a son, but then their lives take a serious turn. To protect his family, this loving father has to turn the hard realities of being sent to a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp into a fun game for the sake of his 5-year-old son, who had to hide from the guards. He made up a story about them being in a contest that whomever made it to the end of the game without being disqualified by getting caught by the guards, would win the grand prize, a real army tank. The boy loved tanks, and he wanted to ride in a real one more than anything.
Many times the boy became tired of the long game and the harsh conditions there. He wanted to give up, but the father reminded him that the game was almost over, and that he was ahead of everyone in points, and that if he gave up, he would be sent home a loser, and someone else would win the tank.
I won’t tell you the ending, but it was an amazing, unbelievable movie that you have to see for yourself. It really made you think about the power of a positive attitude. How else could a holocaust survivor maintain hope without maintaining a positive attitude?
I have a poster on my wall with a quote from Pastor Charles Swindall. It reads:
“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 or 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 will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. 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.”
Life should be fun, and you have the power to make it fun. See the glass as half-full, and not half-empty. In this anxiety ridden, modern, fast-paced world, 95 percent of what we worry about never comes to pass. Happiness is very contagious, but so is worry. Choose to be happy, regardless of your circumstances. If Charlene and I can do it, I know you can. Somehow, I think you probably don’t have it worse off than we do.
Let me share with you an analogy of an actor performing on a stage to help make my point. When the curtain goes up on the stage, the actor steps out into the spotlight and says his lines that he has rehearsed for weeks, or maybe even months.
Life is like that stage. When we go through our trials in life, it’s like we are rehearsing our lines for our part in a play. We may have to rehearse our lines for weeks, months, or maybe even years. Like those lines in the play that we rehearse, our trials similarly are the rehearsals for our destiny, and our performance in the production called life.
God (the producer) assigns us our perfect part in the play, according to our personality, training, temperament and experience. He then casts that part exclusively for us. No one else is capable or qualified to play our part in this play called life.
So when that curtain goes up, and it is time to perform, we must rise to the occasion, and do what we have been preparing to do with excellence. For example, someone who has experienced a life of child molestation finally deals with all the hurt and pain as they reach adulthood.
This allows God to minister healing through counseling and therapy, which brings the healed person to a place where forgiveness is offered, not only for his abuser, but also for himself. After being healed of his shattered life, he is now able to help others find their way to receive the same healing and forgiveness that released them from the paralyzing hold that it once had on their life.
God always has a purpose for the trials that we experience in life that cause us so much pain. I wouldn’t be writing this book, and hopefully helping others who are also struggling to overcome life’s unbelievable hardships, if I didn’t personally go through hardships myself.
If I can survive my trial with joy and peace, and be able to tell you my story, then so can you. Like I said, God always has a purpose in your trials. Just submit to his will, and don’t give up or lose faith.
This is just a another chapter of my book “One Arm One Leg 100 Words, Overcoming Unbelievable Hardships”. You can buy the book by clicking this link. And surely, you will not stop reading it from the beginning till the end of this book.