It was a hard, grief-filled year with all kinds of newness I did not want or desire to embrace... Then I was challenged to be grateful for something — anything — and my attitude softly, gently, in a way I could embrace, changed my thinking every morning, giving me just a bit of new hope each day that I could survive and actually perhaps thrive again in my new unwanted life and situation.
Nancy Meidell, Church News, November 19, 2021
Sometimes life throws us a curveball...and sometimes we hit it but most of the time we swing and miss. Then swing and miss again. Sometimes we strike out, sometimes hit a weak grounder to third, and occasionally we get a base hit or even a home run.
Sorry for the baseball analogy, but life is like that. We never get thrown the same pitch, it is always different. That's just life. Expect the unexpected.
There are two options when we're hit with something unexpected...we can be bitter or we can be better. We only have to change one letter, the letter "I", which is a self absorbed, sometimes selfish letter. We need to look outward. We need to recognize what we have and what others do for us.
That's where the strength and hope come from.