Life is not a game of chance,
nor a lot of great circumstances.
Life is not even a bed of roses,
nor a bag of chocolates.
Life is indeed a matter of good choices
and how to make the best ones.
My choices in life may have not been really the best ones. I must honestly say I have had my own share of bad choices. But as my life progresses I was able to turn those bad choices into the best ones thus making me the best possible person I am.
My mother taught me the basics of discernment. It was with her that I realized that things don’t just happen, but it happens because we make it happen no matter how much we intellectualized or rationalized that it is beyond our capacity as human beings. But she said….that is why we were gifted with the power to discern. The dictionary defines discernment as to the ability to reveal insights and understand. Exactly why we need to empower ourselves with discernment. This will usher us to make the right choices.
My father, on the other hand, has taught me so many things about how to live my life and how to affect other people’s lives as well. He is a very kind and generous, and compassionate man; but when it comes to helping other people, this is what he has to say always “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”.
It is with this thought that I go by how I help people. I can extend help once or twice or okay, let’s say thrice but more than that, my father used to say, is too much of being generous, and instead of simply extending help, I find ways to provide them with a sustainable way of making money or earning income. But sadly, some people don’t like to work or simply would rely on “help” or “aid”. This attitude is very common among us Filipinos.
We are very family-oriented; that we are obliged to help even our distant relatives or friends. It seemed though that because of this idea, many people abuse the culture of “help” in the Philippines, that when you at some point get tired of always helping you become the family’s devil’s advocate. Relatives and friends will be mad at you for not being able to help them. It is very frustrating because some people are even being ungrateful. While you work so hard to make money; they wait for you to simply feed them and help them.
This should also be part of our considerations when making choices in life. Because as we get older and become more successful others will be envious of your success and they will expect you to help them all the time.
1. I choose FAITH
I am not a very religious person. I am not even the type you see in the church all the time. I am not the one who also memorizes every single prayer there is. I also am not the typical middle-age woman in a veil going to mass. But I say, I choose to believe in GOD. I choose to believe that HE is powerful and thus HE is responsible for all that I am.
2. I choose HAPPINESS
As I have mentioned, life is not a bed of roses. It can be bad, it can be sad, it can be lonely, it can be worst……but if we choose happiness no amount of bad, lonely, sad, worst situation can make us reject the fact that life is what we make it after all…
We all surely have gone through a lot of rough, bumpy roads…who didn’t? but if we only learn to see the good in even the worst situation….LIFE would be GREAT… remember, happiness is simply a choice; loneliness is simply optional.
3. I choose THANKFULNESS
An ungrateful heart always leaves us feeling miserable. If we carry on with ungratefulness, no matter what we have, no matter what happens we would – it would never always be enough.
4. I choose POSITIVENESS
Blessed Laura Vicuna said, “smile always and suffer silently”…Her life is a wonderful example of how someone could turn a negative situation into something positive; an example of cheerfulness amidst heartaches.
We don’t have to be saints to be positive. As they say, if we only see life “like a glass full rather than half empty” then we would have the power to change our lives for the better for good.
5. I choose AWARENESS
Awareness in everything that we do, awareness in everything that we can’t do, awareness in every talent that we have, and awareness in the fact that we were all made unique.
We need to be aware of every situation we are in and what led us into it; it is by then that we see if we are leading towards sin…or towards a life anchored in our faith
How about you?…
