"Believe in Good Things to Come."

"Don't you give up.  Don't you quit.  You keep walking.  You keep trying.  There is help and happiness ahead.  It wil be all right in the end.  Trust God and believe in good things to come."  Jeffrey R. Holland

I adore this quote.  Each and every morning when I awaken I tell myself, today I will not, GIVE UP, GIVE IN, OR GIVE OUT!  On the other hand, I will do my best to GIVE positive energy to others who share this planet with me.

I have made a resolve to never allow someone else to determine my behavior.  I'm even working on my tendency to shout at people who drive selfishly, with no regard for any of the other drivers on the road.

These are goals that I have set for myself.  Do I always attain them?  Of course not!  The fact that I couldn't be steadfast and perfect in these goals used to make me feel like giving up.  What good is it to reach for a distant goal if you CAN'T master it completely all at once?

One of the very best things in this life is that we have newness...so many new chances to start over and do better.  We have a new morning, new afternoon, new evening.  We have new nights.  We have new weeks, months, years.  Each and everyone of these "new" experiences is a chance to wipe the old slate clean, and to start anew.

Do you like yourself?  It's really, really tough to live if you can't stand yourself.  After all, if you go into a different room to get away from yourself, you always follow.  I have gone through periods of time in my life when I just sincerely could not stand myself!  Even sleeping does not completely do away with this problem.  Dreams come into our minds from the living we do.

Is it possible to learn to like yourself?  ABSOLUTELY!  NO DOUBT!  Is it possible to learn how to be more positive in life?  ABSOLUTELY!  NO DOUBT!

Here are a few suggestions in learning to love yourself: 

1.  Sit down with a pen and notebook.  Write down 5 things that you like about yourself.  They can be deep or shallow, "I like myself because I have a positive personality."  Or, "I like myself because I have lovely hazel eyes."

2.  Resist the urge to dig up the things you DISLIKE about yourself.

3.  Now that you've written those 5 things, expand upon them.  "I love my hazel eyes because they remind me of my Grandma Howard.  I'm happy to be descended from someone as wonderful as Grandma!"

4.  Write down any and all positive lyrics, poems, or scriptures that you can find.  An example of a scripture would be, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine..."  That is in the Old Testament in the Christian Bible.  An example of a positive lyric, "Smile, though your heart is aching, smile though you feel it breaking...you'll learn that life is worthwhile if you just smile."  One of my favorite go to poems that makes me so happy, "Oh how I do love to go up in a swing, up in the sky so blue, oh I do think it's the pleasantest thing, ever a child can do."  Robert Louis Stevenson  Remember that in the movie Pollyana she listed all the "glad" scriptures in the Bible.  Those are scriptures that mention happiness, joy, etc. etc.  It's always a lift to look at these positive ideas.

5.  Make yourself a happy notebook.  It needs to be something small enough to go in your purse.  You may put pictures that make you feel positive, quotes, lyrics, poetry, or you can make a collage of things that make you feel positive about yourself.

These are all simple steps, but I can promise that they WILL help you to feel better about yourself.  An amazing fact about feeling positively about yourself?  When you feel good inside, you feel more comfortable forgetting about yourself and reaching out to others!

I'm going to end with one of my hubby's favorite quotes.  Our daughter read this at Nyle's funeral.  It's from the book "The Little Prince."  "It is only with the heart that one can see clearly, what is  essential is invisible to the eye."  Open up your heart to love yourself, and to be positive in your living!