I recently came across an inspirational and convicting story about a 92-year-old woman who lost her husband after 70 years of marriage. On this particular day, she was moving into a nursing home—her new home after her husband’s death.
After waiting patiently for several hours in the lobby, she was told her room was ready. She smiled sweetly. While gingerly maneuvering to her room with her walker, she was provided with a visual description of it including eyelet curtains that had been hung on the window.
“I love it,” she said with enthusiasm.
“Mrs. Jones, you haven’t even seen the room…just wait,” her escort said.
“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she said. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. I already decided to love it.”
“I make a decision every morning when I wake up, she explained. “I have a choice: I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work (she is legally blind), or I can get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away just for this time in my life.”
She went on to say, “Old age is like a bank account—you withdraw from what you’ve put in. My advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories. I am still despositing.”
With a smile, she shared five simple rules to being happy:
- free your heart from hatred
- free your mind from worries
- live simply
- give more
- expect less
I couldn’t help but think about Philippians 4:8 after reading her story: “Finally, brothers (and sisters), whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
You may not be able to love everything in your life, but there is always something to be thankful for—something that can be loved.
Despite difficult circumstances, which is often where our minds most often take us to dwell, Mrs. Jones chose to focus on the lovely, the praiseworthy, and the excellent. What a difference it made!
Tommy Newberry says in his book, The 4:8 Principle: The Secret to a Joy-Filled Life, “Our thinking profoundly influences every aspect of our lives. All lasting change is preceded by changed thinking…A revival of our minds. How well your mind works dictates how much joy you experience. No area of your life is untouched by your thoughts.”
Our battles are often won or lost in our minds. It’s what we choose to think about that dictates the joy and happiness in our lives or the lack of it. Our lives are always reflections of our thoughts. If we change our thinking, we can change our lives.
Too often, my first thought goes to the negative: all that isn’t, instead of all that is. I love Mrs. Jones’s phrase when talking about her room, “I already decided to love it.” Wow! I wonder how our outlooks would change if we would think like that by:
- Deciding to love a difficult child
- Deciding to love my house the way it is
- Deciding to love my husband’s shortcomings
- Deciding to love something in the life I have
- Deciding to love my job and income
- Deciding to love my body size
- Deciding to love the way God made me
- Deciding to love something about this stage of life
- Deciding to love the worship music at church
- Deciding to love the spiritual growth that hard times bring
- Deciding to love_______________________
You fill in the blank.
You may not be able to love everything in your life, but there is always something to be thankful for—something that can be loved. Where do you need to train your mind? What are you thinking about most often? How can you be thankful for the things that are working in your life instead of what’s not?
What we think about eventually does define us. Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,” (KJV). We become what we think. To focus on the lovely, the praiseworthy, and the admirable helps us see the good in life and people. It helps us become thankful people instead of complaining people. By thinking about the good gifts God surrounds us with every single day, we’re able to find true joy and happiness because we see life for the gift that it truly is. I know what I need to decide to love, what about you?
