HAPPY HOPEFUL NEW YEAR
January 1, 2023
Happy hopeful New Year! Who knows what the new year holds? I don’t, but I do know that we can help influence our future. I sometimes say that “Life is like a roller coaster ride. Once you are on board, you can decide whether to enjoy the ride’s twists and turns or kick and scream and be miserable the entire ride.” Regardless of your decision, the ride is the same. In large measure your attitude determines how you experience your ride. You can’t control the ride, but you can control your attitude.
I don’t know about you, but I can think of a lot of things that can go wrong in the coming year. I can tell you about the things that I don’t have that I think would make reaching my goals easier. I could go to the “self pity zone” or take the “it ain’t fair’’ mindset but these kinds of thoughts help create perceptually frozen people, families and organizations!
As we start a new year, I always force myself to make time to think of the things that are right in my life. I remind myself that if I am still breathing there must be more for me to do rather than simply exist. The Bible and other spiritual books make it very clear that hope or faith without action is worthless. It is up to each one of us to consciously decide if we are going to have a good year.
I fondly recall that many years ago the famous motivational speaker and author Zig Ziglar preached that it was up to each of us to decide if we were going to have a good day or a bad day. He shared a story from his childhood. He said he got up one cold morning before the sun came up and stood beside his family’s wood kitchen stove for heat, complaining to his mother “It’s going to be a bad day.” His wise mother sent him back to his bed that was covered with quilts and told him he could have a bad day, all day long, in bed! Zig went on to say that as the sun came up and the old house got warmer, he smelled food from the kitchen and tried several times to get out of bed. Each time he tried to get out of bed, his mother directed him to stay in bed and have his bad day. For young Zig, it was a very, very long day. The next morning it was just as cold as the previous day, but Zig said he jumped out of bed and went to stand beside the kitchen stove with his mother, where he proudly declared “It’s going to be a good day!” I used the same wisdom with my young son many years ago when he didn’t want to go to school. The next day he said pretty much the same thing that young Zig said to his mother. The learning lesson worked one more time! Fundamental life lessons are good for all generations.
It is up to each of us to make up our minds how we are going to live in the new year. When things don’t go as we want or plan, remember that by the grace of God we are on the road to greater things despite some minor and even major detours. Life is tough but the journey is easier with the right attitude! There will be seasons of lost jobs, lost contacts, poor health, financial and relationship challenges and countless other things that just don’t take place the way we believe they were supposed to take place. These times give us the opportunity to demonstrate our true character. I often think about the book of Job in the Bible. Job overcame all sorts of challenges and demonstrated his relentless commitment to his faith and values. As I stated above, faith and hope without action are worthless. Once we recognize that life is hard, it is a whole lot easier to move forward.
By the grace of God, I continue to be totally funded on faith. I am constantly reminding myself that “With God and through God, all things are possible.” If we do our part, God will do the rest even when we don’t understand or get the results we want. I pray that you and I take the action necessary in 2023 to make a difference in our lives and the lives of others. Happy New Year and God bless you, your family and our great Country. It’s going to be a good year!
Written by KING AEROSPACE Founder, Jerry Allan King-Echevarria.