A couple of years ago, Christmas turned out to be a little different for me. I had planned after church to partake of a sumptuous lunch and then have a long nap, but suddenly heard a noise on my terrace and found the plumber had sent his men to do some repairs and instead of a nap I had to stand in the hot sun and see that the intricate work was done with no shortcuts.

I grumbled that evening as I fell asleep but next morning as the water flowed well, I felt happy and wished I had looked at the positive side of supervising the work even on Christmas. How often we spend our time looking at the dark side of things when we should be looking at the bright side:

There’s a story of two men who fell on difficult days.

Try as they might, they couldn’t find work.

Finally they heard a museum was willing to pay $50 apiece for live rattlesnakes so, in desperation, they decided to catch snakes. They hiked to a remote area and scaled a steep ledge, but the rock gave way and they tumbled down a slippery bank – into a deep pit crawling with rattlesnakes.
One of the men quickly sized up the situation and shouted to his friend, “Look! We’re rich! We’re rich!”
Okay, maybe he was a little too enthusiastic, but in most situations, I believe there is a bright side.

Take growing old for instance: As we grow older, our skin turns from satin to cotton to a rough texture to corduroy. Sometimes we look at this and feel sad and despondent but remember valuable experience, deep understanding and hard-won wisdom can also come with years of living. Some people are merely aging – while we may be becoming sages and ‘sageing’!

The difference is in our attitude to a situation. Like a sign spotted outside a shop: “We buy junk.”

And on the other side of the same shop: “Antiques for sale.”

Is my life full of junk or antiques? It depends how I look at it.
I’ve learned that my greatest power may well be my power to choose my attitude. As Abraham Lincoln wisely said, “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” The truth is, I can choose to view tough times as growing times, I can choose to see aging as seasoning and I can choose to focus on whatever good there is to be found in living.
Choose from today to look at the brighter side?