Monday Morning Boost: Smile With Hope
When life feels extra hard, I take inspiration from my mother. Mom lived most of her life with chronic pain so bad that any movement hurt so much that she wanted to scream.
But instead of screaming, she spoke softly. Instead of complaining, she expressed immense gratitude. Instead of mourning what she couldn’t do, she focused on what she could do.
Mom replaced the natural tendency for bitterness by focusing intensely on joy.
Hope replaced fear.
Light replaced dark.
Peace replaced despair.
Love for God filled the void of all that was missing even when all that was missing was desperately needed.
Mom cried when she hurt, then she smiled with hope. She grimaced with pain, then smiled with hope. She was in and out of the hospital over the years and spent most of the last year of her life in the ICU, all the time smiling with hope.
Whenever mom was in the most pain, she would simply smile with hope while giving us her go-to phrase of hope…
“It could always be worse.”
Whatever the challenge we each may be going through, we can be more like my mother and smile with hope. 😀
Have a Beautiful Monday! I love you, friends!
Les
p.s. Take 13 minutes today to focus on intentionally smiling with hope.
