Have a High Appreciation for Life
I’m going to continue sharing excerpts from John C. Maxwell’s book, Today Matters because when we wake up in the morning, God has blessed us with a brand new day and how we handle His gift really does matter. Have you ever known people who complain about everything? Their soup’s too hot. Their bed’s too cold. Their vacation’s too short. Their pay’s too low. (There are a lot of people today who would be grateful to just have a job at any pay level.) Such people simply don’t appreciate life no matter how good it gets.
John Maxwell tells the story of a friend who emailed him the story of a very “together” and independent ninety-two-year-old lady who was moving into a nursing home. Since she was legally blind and her husband of seventy years had passed away, the move was her only option. She waited in the lobby of the facility for a long time before finally being told that her room was ready. As she was escorted down the corridor, her attendant started describing the room, down to the curtains hung on the windows.
“I love it,” the elerly lady enthused.
“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged. It’s how I arrange my mind.”
Appreciation isn’t a matter of taste or sophistication. It’s a matter of perspective. John Wooden said, “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.” The place to start is with the little things. If you can learn to appreciate them and be grateful for them, you’ll appreciate the big things as well as everything in between.
“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”
- John Wooden
Bill Witcher is co-founder of Computer School for Seniors
He can be reached at bill@cs4seniors.com
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