The Best Day

"Have you had some good days in your life?"

The question of the most adorable 90 year old man i've ever seen. Yesterday was his 90th birthday, and him and his family came into the boutique after their lunch. He had a big sign around his body, the front spelled out the word birthday and his family had come up with a phrase for each letter, and the back said Honk or say Hee-Haw i'm 90 today. It was precious. He couldn't fit through any of the doors because of it, so he stood in the front room and talked to me while his family browsed. He was talking about how it was the best day, and how every day can and should be the best day- that it's all up to us and our attitudes to make it great. 

How true is that? How many times do we sulk around because of a situation, sit worrying about something we can't control, get upset because something didn't work out like we'd hoped. Probably more often than we realize. 

Whether we're going through good or bad times, how we handle it could make all the difference. In Romans 5 it says that  we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. Rejoice in our sufferings? How can we do that, and how can we make each day the best day ever?

When life hurts us, that's when we have to rejoice and be thankful- even if it hurts, even if we don't understand. We have to be hopeful through the trials.  

I'm part of a little book club right now and we're going through a book to develop our leadership skills. One of our "assignments" for the week was to write some affirmations about ourselves. When I got to thinking about them, it seemed pretty easy because it's easy to be hard on ourselves. It's easy to say that we're not good enough, not smart or pretty enough- the list goes on of things that we see as negativities inside of us. 

We need to take those negative perceptions we have of ourselves, of others, of situations, and flip it. Instead of thinking you aren't qualified for something-- think... "I am enough. I'm lacking nothing. I know what I need to know and I am capable of this," or something along those lines- whatever you need to tell yourself that you struggle with.

When I was talking to the man yesterday, I thought of my affirmations. Repeating those to myself daily can have an influence on my day. It affects how I view myself, and therefore, affects how I act and affects how other people perceive me. If I think good, uplifting thoughts instead of concentrating on the things that aren't "perfect," won't I be much happier? How would our relationships look if we each did the same?  It might make each day seem a little more enjoyable.

So when you're having a bad day, think happy thoughts. Think of how blessed you are to have the people you have in your life, the job, the family and friends, the experiences. Don't dwell on the negativity, the things that might not be going in your favor right now.

Today's the best day ever- as is every day. Only we can control our thoughts and our reactions to the circumstances we face. The way we handle things, the way we portray ourselves, the way we interact with others can impact not only our lives, but the lives of those around us. If we're having the best day, maybe we'll be given the opportunity to let others in on the little secret and soon enough, we'll be able to help everyone around us to have the best day ever.

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