Many times we forget that our attitude has a big part in directing how our days will turn out.

THE SCULPTOR’S ATTITUDE

I woke up early today, excited over all I get to do before the clock strikes midnight.
I have responsibilities to fulfill today. I am important.

My job is to choose what kind of day I am going to have.

Today I can complain because the weather is rainy or…
I can be thankful that the grass is getting watered for free.

Today I can feel sad that I don’t have more money or…
I can be glad that my finances encourage me to plan my purchases wisely and guide me away from waste.

Today I can grumble about my health or…
I can rejoice that I am alive.

Today I can lament over all that my parents didn’t give me when I was growing up or…
I can feel grateful that they allowed me to be born.

Today I can cry because roses have thorns or…
I can celebrate that thorns have roses.

Today I can mourn my lack of friends or…
I can excitedly embark upon a quest to discover new relationships.

Today I can whine because I have to go to work or…
I can shout for joy because I have a job to do.

Today I can complain because I have to go to school or…
eagerly open my mind and fill it with rich new tidbits of knowledge.

Today I can murmur dejectedly because I have to do housework or…
I can feel honored because the Lord has provided shelter for my mind, body and soul.

Today stretches ahead of me, waiting to be shaped. And here I am, the sculptor who gets to do the shaping.

What today will be like is up to me. I get to choose what kind of day I will have!

What will you choose to do with Today?

Have a Great Day…unless you have other plans.

***Author Unknown***

Tomorrow is not promised…therefore:

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” —Mahatma Gandhi

“Lives, like money, are spent. What are you buying with yours?” —Roy H. Williams

“How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.” —George Washington Carver

“Life is a succession of lessons, which must be lived to be understood.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Life begets life. Energy becomes energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.” —Sarah Bernhardt

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” —Martin Luther King Jr.

“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” —Albert Einstein

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” —Winston Churchill

“Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.” —James Dean

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain

“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.” —Ashley Smith

“Reverence for Life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, assisting, and enhancing life and that to destroy, harm, or to hinder life is evil. Affirmation of the world — that is affirmation of the will to live, which appears in phenomenal forms all around me — is only possible for me in that I give myself out for other life.” —Albert Schweitzer

“Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.”  —Carl Sandburg

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room.

One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window.

The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.

The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.

As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.

Although the other man couldn’t hear the band – he could see it. In his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words. Days and weeks passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside.

He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.

It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window.

The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.

She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.”

Epilogue: There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situations.

Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled.

If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can’t buy.

“Today is a gift, that’s why it is called the present.”

—author unknown