How do you see your life?
Don't pessimists bug you? I don't ever want to be one, but sometimes I go there, to that dark, icky place. I don't ever "mean" to, but there's definitely a pull in that direction.
Maybe you're a hard-wired optimist. Or perhaps your parents trained you to see a glass as half-full.
Regardless of whether it's nature or nurture, if you have a sunny disposition, you believe that life is better when you choose to believe the best. And yes, it is a choice.
This intentional optimism is a gift. However, even if you HAVE the gift (I count myself in that crowd), the pessimist struggle is real.
Trust me. On any given day I choose whether I am going to celebrate my challenges. I choose if the failures will build or tear down my character. I choose if I'm going to be the annoying pessimist or not.
I read a nugget from author Shauna Niequist the other day which challenged and encouraged me:
"When you realize that the story of your life could be told a thousand different ways, that you could tell it over and over as a tragedy, but you choose to call it an epic, that's when you start to learn what celebration is. When what you see in front of you is so far outside of what you dreamed, but you have the belief, the boldness, the courage to call it beautiful instead of calling it wrong, that's celebration.”
Yes indeed!
My life can and yours can be told a thousand different ways depending on where we focus.
This week, will you have the boldness and the courage to call what lies in front of you "beautiful"?
Will you choose to celebrate?
I hope so...