Tuesday was probably one of the most difficult days I had in a long time. These were the last two days I had to spend with our youngest son, a Marine, before his leaving for Okinawa, Japan. We won’t be seeing him for over a year and this good-bye was not going to be an easy one.

As well, my husband is showing signs of wear from the radiation and chemo treatments. I was out running errands for him because he wasn’t up to it after a full day at work as a policeman. Yes, he is still at work! The man absolutely amazes me!!

As I waited to speak with the pharmacist, I was staring down at my list of things to do. So many of these errands were things that John would normally do. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed as I read through what still needed to be done. I, too, work full time outside the home and was starting on my trip down “Pity Party Lane.” The trip was a short one! My eyes fell upon the drawing of a young woman holding a basket filled with flowers. Written above her were the words:

Thankful am I…

I had to smile. The Lord had just reached down and placed me under the shadow of His wings and comforted me! I immediately began to thank Him for my To Do List! I was so thankful that I was able to run these errands for my beloved because that meant that my beloved was still with me! I openly smiled and my heart began to rejoice!

It is amazing how our vision is skewed when we place our eyes on our own circumstances. But once we begin to be thankful for what we have and count our blessings, we immediately start seeing our lives as the Lord would have us to.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. ~Psalm 100:4

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. ~1 Thessalonians 5:18

I believe that being thankful is a frame of mind. We cannot be thankful in all things if our eyes are fixed on our problems and trials. Instead, we can be thankful if we count the blessings God has given to us. Sometimes we are hit over the head, as I was. Other times, we have to really search for a blessing – but you can be sure there are some to be found. If you can’t find anything to be thankful for, look to the heavens and behold the stars. God gives us blessings in each sunrise and sunset. He gives a symphony of song to the birds for us to hear. He places a wonderful fragrance in the air with each rose that lines the path that we walk. He paints a lovely picture with each waterfall, each mountain, and each blossoming cherry tree.

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. ~Psalm 28:7

Therefore, thankful am I…

© Kate Plourde 2009

Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee. ~Psalm 143:8

Arthur Gordon is a favorite writer of mine. Once he came to New York to interview Dr. Blanton, a co-founder of the American Foundation for Religion and Psychiatry. Mr. Gordon sat in a restaurant waiting for the esteemed psychiatrist to arrive. As he waited, his mind went back over his life. By the time Mr. Blanton arrived, Mr. Gordon was sitting there with a frown and a very sad look on his face.

“What’s the matter, Arthur?”

“Oh,” the writer replied, “I’ve just been sitting here thinking about all the ‘ifs’ in my life.”

Dr. Blanton suggested, “Let’s drive over to my office after lunch; I want you to hear something.”

Later in his office, Dr. Blanton put on a tape and said, “I’m going to let you listen to three different people; they’re all patients of mine and they are mentally ill. Listen carefully.”

For one hour the great author listened. When the tape was finished , Dr. Blanton asked, “Tell me what single trait all these people had in common.”

Arthur Gordon thought a moment and then answered, “I can’t think of anything.”

“Then I’ll tell you,” the psychiatrist said. “All of them kept repeating the phrase, ‘If only…if only…if only.’ These words cause mental sickness. They are like poison. These people must learn to say, ‘Next time…next time…next time.’ These words point to the future, to a new day, to healing and health!”

I trust my past to God. My eyes are on the future!

~Author Unknown~

Behind the city of Colorado Springs, at the back of the U.S. Air Force Academy, stands a mountain called Eagle Peak which is popular amongst local hikers and Scouts, in particular. From its summit you can peer into the depths of the Rocky Mountains on one side or overlook the vast expanse of the Great Plains on the other. Each summer the trail leading to the peak is trod by those who’ve walked it’s track before as well as those who make of it a new experience.

The inexperienced hiker is generally always told, if he cares to ask, that the hike will take all day to go up and back. He is told to start early and to set a strong, steady pace for the journey will be difficult and rigorous. The inexperienced hiker who follows this advice and plans accordingly can be easily disappointed and even become angry or confused upon reaching the beginning of the trail, because he can see with his own eyes from the parking lot that the hike to the summit and back would take far less than half a day with little difficulty at even the most leisurely pace.

And so he changes his plans. He meanders up the trail wandering frequently from the path, taking numerous side-trips and detours. He stops to play and to snack on some of the supplies he had brought since he obviously won’t need so much for such a short trip. He goes well out of his way to avoid some of the more difficult parts of the trail. This he does until about half way through the day when he finally climbs to the summit only to discover that it was his eyes which had deceived him and not the words of those who had gone before. For he now stands on a false summit which had blocked his view of the higher summit far above.

Realizing his lack of foresight, this hiker now quickly reevaluates his time and decides that if he pushes himself hard enough he can still make it to the summit and back before it gets too dark. And so he sets off at a frantic pace; stumbling, crashing through the brush, receiving bruises, scrapes and scratches as the sun moves steadily toward the horizon. Until at last he reaches his mark and looks up at still another summit. You see, Eagle Peak has two false summits, both of which must be travelled over before reaching the real goal. Our inexperienced hiker now sadly begins his trek back down the mountain knowing he fell short of the goal he had sought after. He will try again another day, for there are many beautiful days in Colorado Springs. Wiser for his experience, he will doubtless reach his goal on the next occasion.

In our journey through life, however, we are not so fortunate. There are many false summits and if you strive toward only those goals which you can see, you will fall far short of the genuine goal.

~ R.D. Clyde

When cancer came into our lives, defeating it wais our genuine goal. However, there are a few summits along the way: radiation and/or chemotherapy, surgery, changing one’s life style and changing one’s eating habits. We cannot reach the ultimate goal of defeating cancer without first conquering the others. They are all part of the cancer path and each is as important as the other.

There is no easy way to reach the goal but as Christians, we know that the Lord is there every step of the way. We know that our help comes from on high and not at the hands of man.

~Psa 121:1-2 [A Song of degrees.] I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.

There are no sweeter words to the one who is in need of help!

Have you ever thought that there were more important things for God to do than to be concerned over your problems.

I know that I have been guilty of praying only when I felt my needs were important or desperate. But the Lord wants us to pray to Him, believing that He will respond.

He longs to bless us – He waits for us to acknowledge His desire to bless us. This includes praying for stamina during cancer treatments – it includes asking to be healed – it includes freeing up the traffic on the highway when you are dog tired and want to get home quickly. God may not heal us from cancer but He will help us through the trial.

Here’s a beautiful account of what God can do with the faith of a child.

This beautiful story was written by a doctor who worked in South Africa…

One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in spite of all we could do, she died leaving us with a tiny premature baby and a crying two-year-old daughter. We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive; as we had no incubator (we had no electricity to run an incubator). We also had no special feeding facilities.

Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts. One student midwife went for the box we had for such babies and the cotton wool that the baby would be wrapped in.

Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly in distress to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst (rubber perishes easily in tropical climates).

“And it is our last hot water bottle!” she exclaimed. As in the West, it is no good crying over spilled milk, so in Central Africa it might be considered no good crying over burst water bottles. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways.

“All right,” I said, “put the baby as near the fire as you safely can, and sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job is to keep the baby warm.”

The following noon, as I did most days, I went to have prayers with any of the orphanage children who chose to gather with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle, and that the baby could so easily die if it got chills. I also told them of the two-year-old sister, crying because her mother had died.

During prayer time, one ten-year old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt conciseness of our African children. “Please, God,” she prayed, “Send us a hot water bottle today. It’ll be no good tomorrow, God, as the baby will be dead, so please send it this afternoon.”

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It’s never too late to start something you have been dreaming to do for a long time! This is an excellent example of how we can impact the lives of others. God has left us here to help the lost to find Him. He has left us here to be a blessing to others! The “moral” of this story is a good one, isn’t it?

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, “Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over.”

I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead.

“I will come next Tuesday”, I promised a little reluctantly on her third call.

Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn’s house, I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren.

“Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch!”

My daughter smiled calmly and said, ” We drive in this all the time, Mother.”

” Well, you won’t get me back on the road until it clears, and then I’m heading for home!” I assured her.

“But first we’re going to see the daffodils. It’s just a few blocks,” Carolyn said. “I’ll drive. I’m used to this.”

“Carolyn,” I said sternly, “Please turn around.”

“It’s all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience.”

After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read, “Daffodil Garden.” We got out of the car, each took a child’s hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight.

It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain peak and its surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.

“Who did this?” I asked Carolyn.

“Just one woman,” Carolyn answered. “She lives on the property. That’s her home.”

Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house.

On the patio, we saw a poster. “Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking”, was the headline.

The first answer was a simple one. “50,000 bulbs,” it read.

The second answer was, “One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain.”

The third answer was, “Began in 1958.”

For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop.

Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived.

One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration.

That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time, often just one baby-step at a time and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.

“It makes me sad in a way,” I admitted to Carolyn. ” What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty five or forty years ago and had worked away at it ‘one bulb at a time’ through all those years?

“Just think what I might have been able to achieve!”

My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way.

“Start tomorrow,” she said.

She was right. It’s so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays.

The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, “How can I put this to use today?”

Use the Daffodil Principle. Stop waiting…..

Until your car or home is paid off

Until you get a new car or home

Until your kids leave the house

Until you go back to school

Until you finish school

Until you clean the house

Until you organize the garage

Until you clean off your desk

Until you lose 10 lbs.

Until you gain 10 lbs.

Until you get married

Until you get a divorce

Until you have kids

Until the kids go to school

Until you retire

Until summer

Until spring

Until winter

Until fall

Until you die…

There is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey, not a destination. So work like you don’t need money. Love like you’ve never been hurt, and dance like no one’s watching.

~Author Unknown~