I've been thinking about that question all day. I've heard people several times this week way that now that Senator Obama has been elected, now they have their hope restored. Why is that? I for one do not believe that my hope lies with a man or a President.
I believe that I am in charge of my destiny. I believe I am responsible for my accomplishments. I am responsible for my own happiness. I believe that no one has the power to make me happy or successful. Sure, people can bring happiness into your life, people can encourage you to be successful, but true hope, success or happiness is what each of us make out of the life we are given.
There has been so much talk about CHANGE. Well I've always heard that people don't like change. So why was that mantra so affective? The only change I'm expecting is the CHANGE in my own personal strategy to beat the idea of "spread the wealth" at their own game. Sure I don't like the fact that what has been working for me in my life has to change, but I'm a survivor. No matter what, I'm going to figure out a way to survive, it's been ingrained into my DNA. What frightens me is that there are plenty of people in the United States that have never had to "survive". What happens when all those naive people out there don't receive the "change" they are expecting and we go into a recession? Will they be able to switch gears and do what it takes or will they resort to taking what they need from anyone just because they believe that they deserve it?
In my opinion, I have hope because I have faith. I could not get through each day if I didn't believe that no matter how dark tomorrow may appear, I'm not steering the ship, I'm only rowing. When things have seemed bleak in my life and I give up any of my worries and work hard and lean on my faith, God has always been faithful.
One of my favorite verses is Phillipians 4:6: Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; that doesn't mean that I can sit on my laurels and God provide me with all my needs. I believe that God opens doors, but he expects me to have enough sense and reason to figure out how to walk through the door and make things happen.
One of my favorite jokes goes something like this:
There was this man that laid in his bed every night and prayed over and over, "God, please let me win the lottery, please allow me to win the lottery!" One night the man was laying in his bed praying, "God, please let me win the lottery!" Well the man felt a bright light in the room, opened his eyes and there stood God at the foot of the bed. The man exclaimed, "My God, what are you doing here?" God said, "My son, every night I hear you laying here praying that I might allow you to win the lottery. Will you please do me a favor?" The man said, "Sure, I'll do anything." God said, "Please buy a lottery ticket!"
Moral of the story for me, we pray for many things and expect God to deliver them. Last time I checked, God doesn't utilize UPS or Federal Express. He might plant an idea in our minds that might deliver us from our circumstances, but God will always provide us a way to deliver us from our circumstances but we have to utilize the sense he gave us to make the steps forward. There is always a solution if we look for a solution but it isn't our friends, our neighbors, our family or our government to solve our problems. We are responsible for our own destiny. We are responsible for our own HOPE!
Where there is hope, there can be faith, where there is faith, miracles can occur. VN8
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10 comments:
Bravo! A great post!
Great post, VN8...!!!
That looks like a "glass half full" post to me and I love stuff like that.
I don't see anything wrong with self-sufficiency, and if events unfold which force us to examine self-reliance more carefully, well, those muscles probably needed exercising anyway.
Very good blog posting VN8.
As far as change goes, change happens every day. Look at all the glorious and wonderful changes that have occurred since we were children. I believe change starts with a dream. We visualize it then we take the steps to execute it. Sometimes change is thrust upon us unwillingly! Now, we can either lay down and die or we can accept it and make it a workable part of our lives. It all has to do with our attitude.
Here's a little quote from something I said today on one of Jim's blogs: "Jim, you're aware of my current situation, and for the first time in a long time I'm feeling optimistic about not only my future, but the future of our Country (and no, I'm not meaning Governmental handouts)." Believe it or not, I would feel this way regardless of whoever became our next President! I crave optimism and enthusiasm. There as been so much of that this past week and it can't help but be infectious!! From the folks hanging out on the street corners, smiling and waving signs, to the horns honking, the fireworks crackling, and the crowds cheering!! Times will change, regardless of who is in office!! Life goes on, and I for one am so thankful that it does!!
Amen to hope, faith, and miracles!! =)
LMAO... my Word Verification this time is: CHILL
ahahaha
Lee, thanks so much. Sometimes God places a burden on your heart and you just have to get it out! LOL VN8
OM1C, yes sir, that was definitely a "glass half full", sometimes I think some of us are swimming up stream with optimism as we work diligently away others in the stream are saying, "wait, I wish I could do that too." What my post was referring to is why CAN'T they swim up stream all the time without a MAN or President offering them that hope? My hope comes from somewhere deep inside. I can encourage someone all day long, but they have to get up and swim up the stream by themselves or they will drag me to the bottom and we both drown.
As for your lesson/blessing quote that I've seen several times, I believe that you are correct 100%, some people may have never learned self reliance or forgotten how and this may be a wake up call that we will all fail if they don't EXEWRCISE and learn the self reliance that many of us have already achieved. Amen brother. VN8
Angie, thanks for the compliment but I have a (confused) look on my face. Either I misunderstood your comment or you misunderstood my blog post.
I believe that change is a great thing when it is a positive change. I met with a client today who owns a CPA firm and her client's are selling off stock and trying to find places to "hide" their funds because of their fear of a BO administration. They are gravely concerned about their IRA's. After BO's spread the wealth comment, he said it, I didn't, they are afraid he's going to take their minuscule wealth and spread it around!
Change is like being put on a lathe it hones us into something magnificent. But when the Federal Government attempts to place us working class folks onto a lathe, (I don't care what your tax bracket is) and wants to hone you or anybody else into something that they don't want to be, to give something to someone who hasn't worked for it, that's change I don't believe in. The Federal Government is not our mommy or our daddy, we are adults, it is up to us and us alone to make decisions for our futures. Life is what you make of it.
If I gave two different people 1,000.00 as an experiment, one person might invest in something and multiply their funds and another person might squander what was given, but is it then up to the intelligent person to share what they have made with the person who squandered their funds and was possibly slothful? Absolutely not. Yes it has to do with attitude, 100%, no doubt about it, but it's not my responsibility if someone else doesn't have the willingness to change their own attitude and make something of their lives.
As for your comment about a dream, I believe that all dreams come from God, they are like little seeds that he plants and those of us who cultivate those dreams succeed to what ever degree. Some people either never acknowledge their dreams or have absolutely NO motivation.
"Believe it or not, I would feel this way regardless of whoever became our next President! I crave optimism and enthusiasm." That is great, wish more people had it, but it sounded to me as if you had lost your optimism and now a President Elect had or was giving your hope back to you. Hope is within yourself.
Let me tell you a little story, I ran an errand this week after the election, minding my own business, doing some shopping. I half expected what I'm getting read to tell you, but it still came as a shock.
I made my selections and headed to the register and was greeted by a black female cashier. No problem their, I made my purchase and as I headed to the door, she made a comment out loud to another black female cashier (and it was obviously intended for me to hear) that "we have us a black President NOW). I almost turned around and said, "I'm sorry, did you say something to me, but I do carry and I have a permit and I didn't want to acknowledge that yes she has a black President sure enough, WE all do. What's the big deal? You see, race is an issue, it always was, not to everyone, but to say that it wasn't an issue is to stick our heads in the sand. Since the election it isn't my first encounter and I have spoken to other friends who have had similar smug encounters and to be honest it isn't Caucasians who are rubbing the wrong way it's exactly the opposite.
MLK Jr. had a dream, it was a fabulous dream. A dream that I believe included equal opportunity, but what percentage of the group he represented has taken that dream and fulfilled what the civil rights movement stood for. The civil rights movement stood for equality for all, not for some, it didn't stand for reparations, but too many that's what they have expected.
There has never been a race of people that have not been enslaved but until we get to the point that we stop talking about the injustices imposed upon blacks in this Nation, we will never move forward from the topic of racism. I say get over it and move forward. I didn't enslave anyone, don't intend to and it's an excuse. It's all about, woe is me, I'm a victim.
I'm getting off topic but hope is a great thing, change is good, conditions in life can provide hope but it isn't a man or a President that provides that hope is all I'm saying.
I have a dream today, I dream of a day when everyone will work as hard as they want or as little as they want to achieve whatever it is that they want but never look to someone else to fulfill THEIR dreams. I have a dream today!
VN8
"Where there is hope, there can be faith, where there is faith, miracles can occur". - Amen
That is the "Original Recipe" from which miracles occur when mixed in equal portions: Faith, Hope, and Love. Gives one pause to be thankful for miracles past, and pray for future blessings.
Sometimes faith is all that I have had and it has never left me! Thank God Almighty! Brothers and Sisters unite. What a might God we serve!
Jinxie, some of the above was a little over kill just because I know it's like running finger nails across the chalk board, but you understand my meaning entirely! VN8
Amen Solie. My dear grandmother, RIP, use to pray for me all the time. She died when I was 27. I never understood faith. When she died, she left me her bible! Her death devastated me. I came home to Georgia from NC and sat on my sofa, broken, opened her bible and asked God that if faith existed, I needed proof. I opened that bible up and low and behold the first thing I read was scripture pertaining to faith. To this day, I can't remember the book, chapter or verse, but as Chris Matthews has stated, I felt a tingle go up my leg! LOL Well not really, it was more like electricity shoot from the top of my head to the bottom of my toes, it wasn't a sexual charge it was more of a 220 volt of, NOW YOU GOT IT, kind of thing! My grandmother had been praying for me to get it and you know when we pray, God never promises that we will live to see those prayers answered, but I know she new in death that I finally GOT it! Thank God I had a prayer warrior on my side! Miracles really do happen! VN8
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