Living Attitude

"Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe." - Voltaire

I will admit that I am not very good when it comes to being sick. The kind of sick that is the minor kind like a flu or head cold. My way of battling is to hunker down, drink lots of water and try not to talk very much. Hopefully I am not a whining type of sick person, but only my wife would be able to tell.

When I think about being sick though, I always wonder how I would react to the big ones. When surgery is required or some greater form of cancer or disease. Those would be the things that a person really has a right to be whiny about. And when I look back at others I have watched go through a major ordeal, it is not being whiny that I saw in them.

A good friend of ours had a form of brain cancer many years ago. She was healed and has had many years of healthy living. Then recently, there was a concern, a spot that appeared again. The worst could be thought and the worry came back over, yet she braved it with great faith and resolve.

The spot was revealed to have been just old scar tissue and is not cancerous. She never lost her faith during this ordeal. She smiled, she lived and she fought off all of the bad things that could have overcome her. Never a 'woe is me' came from her on what could have been completely different.

I also remember watching my Mother go through her fight with Pancreatic Cancer this past year. While she had symptoms (knowing what we know now) back in late 2007, she was diagnosed in January of 2008. It is said normally that by the time it is diagnosed, it is already too late.

But my mother fought the good fight, trying the various rounds of chemo treatments bravely and always with a smile. And as she lay in her final days with family gathered around, she continued to teach us with stories and laughter. Her faith is what kept her in good stead through out. She told us at one point that "prayer was for us before we knew what prayer was."

I do not know each of your beliefs on prayer nor do I write to convince you to pray. For me I find prayer comforting in many ways, believing in my faith to help pull me through despite what is happening in the natural. I learned from my mother and many others, that you approach sickness just as anything else two ways. One is to give up and foster a bad attitude. The second is to fight it and keep a good attitude about it.

I choose the second option to live life, fight pain, or approach anything that happens with a good attitude. It will keep my mind clear and energy available to focus on the great things that can happen. Never do I want to waste that on complaint and woe, neither is useful. In the summation of my life, people will have enjoyed being around me through all the ups and downs of that life. And I will have lived a greater life because of it.
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