Making The Decision For Change

Let’s begin this adventure into a new place of positive expectations by looking at a personal example of how my day began today.  My wife has been dealing with a medical  

condition for a little while and last night was kind of rough on the two of us.  When I awoke this morning I was tired and still dealing with some of the emotions from the events of the previous evening.  When I looked out the window it was cold, dark and threatening to rain.  It was one of the relatively few times that the weather here in northern California was not cooperating with my need to get off of the emotional roller coaster I was riding.  I was therefore faced with a decision that could affect the outcome of my entire day.   I could grumble and feel sorry for myself and be of absolutely no encouragement to my wife or any of the other people I would see throughout the day or choose to change the way I was feeling in order to foster a more positive outlook for the day.  My decision was to make a change.  This is a key to the whole process of having negative or positive expectations in life.  Instead of allowing an event to direct the path of my day, I chose to take the wheel and steer my entrance into the day in the direction I wanted it to take.   At that point I knew that I was going to have a good day.  My decision was made and I was not going back!   I marched myself downstairs, brewed a steaming hot cup of coffee and went into the study to build myself up with something that would allow me to move away from the difficulties of the previous night and boost me up with great expectations of good things for the day ahead.  The source of that encouragement can vary for different folks.  For me as a Christian and a Pastor it is the word of God as written in the Bible.  It is this word that gives me the foundation for my daily expectations.  With my cup of java, my Bible, notebook and trusty computer Bible study program (I like the free online program e-Sword found at http://www.e-sword.net) I jumped in and allowed the transformation in me to take place.  After a little while I found myself gazing out one of the windows in the study enjoying the fall colors, the towering redwoods, and the shapes of the leave-less trees, totally oblivious to the threatening weather.  Nothing was going to get me down because I had come to the place where I was fully expectant of good things to happen this day. 

…and you know what?  As I write this post it is now late in the afternoon, it is just beginning to rain and it has been a great day!  How did your day go?  Did you have an opportunity to make a change in it’s outcome?  Think about how you can make your tomorrow into a good day.  In the coming days and weeks we’ll dig a little deeper into foundations and change.  Stay tuned and ask yourself daily: “What Am I Expecting… today?”