Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolve for the day:
– I shall not fear anyone on Earth.
– I shall fear only God.
– I shall not bear ill will toward anyone.
– I shall not submit to injustice from anyone.
– I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
(the new blooms of an awakening Spring / Julie Cook / 2014)
“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”
― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
With each new morning, at dawn’s first light, as the alarm sounds, what do you do first?
Do you quickly shut your eyes hoping that you had only imagined they had opened?
Do you imagine it all a dream, thinking surely it’s not already morning?
Do you simply shut your eyes again, oblivious that they had opened at all?
Do you curse the light, the alarm, the morning, the day?
Do you fill yourself with dread, angst, regret?
Do you immediately begin running over your day’s agenda in your head, making yourself nervous before you even get out of bed?
Do you hit the snooze button allowing yourself a small reprieve?
Do you think it best to simply stay in the bed, avoiding the day all together?
or
Do you thank God for having given you a new morning–despite how bad you may feel?
Do you think that this may be the day that things turn around—your health, your circumstance, your job, your heart?
Do you imagine the possibilities which are ahead of you this new day?
Do you silently promise to smile more at each new passerby?
Do you think about the difference you could make in someone’s life this new day?
Do you think of the many things you wish you could accomplish in your life with today being possibly the only day you have to do so?
Do you resolve to make a difference, take a stand, to do what is right, be the role model you wish you had, to be the person who speaks up?
or
You could merely muddle about each morning, lamenting your lot in life, cursing the news, fearing the day, hiding in the shadows.
You could blame others for your circumstance. . .opting to play the role of the victim.
Maybe you’re just comfortable being unhappy, in a bad place, settling for less than what the Creator of the Universe had envisioned for you when He saw you before you were even born.
“but I can’t help my circumstances” you protest.
“I was given this bum lot in life, what do you want me to do? I can’t change things”
Maybe it is bad.
Very bad.
“What do you know” you sneer.
Maybe you are a “product” of your surroundings
Maybe you’ve hit a wall with little to no hope in sight.
But does that mean it defines you?
Does it have to claim you?
Dare to resolve each new morning to claim love, to claim truth, to claim justice, to claim peace.
To offer thanks despite circumstance.
To turn from woe to hope
To seek Grace
To offer Grace
“And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
Acts 20:32
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