MOMtivation

I am extremely attracted to people of great faith. Being the social butterfly I am, I have met a lot of people in my life, and I can say without a doubt that faith is definitely connected to one’s attitude and happiness.

The grumpiest people I have met resist a belief in their creator, mistrust others, and, this affects their belief in themselves.

I think it was Harvey McKay who said something like ”Optimists are right. Pessimists are right also. It’s up to you what you choose to be.”

I was thinking about the story of Naaman, which we find on II Kings 5:1-14.  This story has always resonated with me.  He was a good man and a Syrian soldier of great prestige, greatly affected with leprosy… an incurable disease at the time.

After obtaining gold, silver and fine linens to pay the king for restoration of his health, Naaman went to see the prophet Elisha, (yes, that’s my daughter’s name) whose servant told him to go dip seven times in the Jordan River.  This really upset Naaman as he felt it was an insult. He left. How could this crazy activity clean him and heal him from a deadly disease?

“Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.”

Naaman’s servants helped him see that his pride was interfering with his recovery, so he returned to Israel and dipped seven times in the Jordan and he was completely cured.

“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies” said Mother Teresa

Sometimes the most seemingly insignificant acts of faith (or optimism, if you will) will work wonders, if only:

1. We get ourselves out of the way (“Behold, I thought…”)
2. We shed our ego, lose our pride
3. We take the first step (as ridiculous or inconceivable as it may seem/sound)

I know that skepticism creates procrastination. I think skepticism and disbelief are actually a form of fear.   It’s easier to complain and disregard a possibility than to work toward it.  The “what if it doesn’t work out?” can certainly stop us in our tracks.

Faith is not the opposite of fear. My most monumental miracles happened when I had faith in the midst of “unbearable fear.”  When I believed in something greater when all belief in myself was gone.

Every little thing counts, every little step gets us closer… When we are faithful in the little things is where we become strong in spite because of fear, adversity, turmoil, pain, disease, and/or any unpleasant circumstances.

That’s why it’s easier to have an optimistic perspective of life when you have faith: it’s not about me or who I am, it’s about US and whose we are.

Taking each step in faith is sure to get us there.

Guiding YOUR Path to Success,