Hello and welcome back to Second Chance to Live. I am happy to see that you decided to stop by to visit with me. I have been thinking about some thing that I would like to share with you. As people living with visible or invisible disabilities, we can some times feel as though our efforts to contribute go unnoticed. That what we do in our attempts to contribute pale in comparison to others efforts.
People may minimize or marginalize our contribution, but that does not minimize or marginalize our contribution.
I would like to share several truths that help me to overcome these feelings, when they crop up for me. I need to remember that living life is not meant to be about comparing myself to anyone else. Living life is about learning to be who I am and learning how to use what has been given to me. I can identify with other people, but their lot in life is not my lot in life. With this understanding, I need to keep the focus on myself as I cultivate my lot.
*Regardless of your lot in life, you can build something beautiful on it.” Zig Ziglar
I also need to remember that I am only a visitor on planet Earth. My home is heaven. Consequently, I need to examine my motives as I live my life. With this realization, I need to ask myself, “Whose approval are you seeking?”. I need to ask myself, “What are you seeking to gain?”. I need to ask myself, “Where is your focus?”. I need to ask myself, “What do you want to leave in the dash between the year you were born and the year you leave this life?”.
Mother Teresa posted a prayer on her door. The prayer, “Do it Anyway”. The prayer is an excellent way to examine the question, “What are My Motives?”. Each line in the prayer helps me to orient my motives when I am feeling minimized and marginalized. The last line of the prayer helps me to consider the benefit of examining my motives, as I live my life, “You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway”.’
Let me know what the prayer speaks to you.
Below I will include a copy of the prayer.
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
….Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
….Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
….Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
….Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
….Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
….Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
….Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
…Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway
For a list and links to each of my 1200 articles, please click on this link: My Site Map for my Articles
As you watch, listen to or read my article (s) and questions come to mind, please send those questions to me. All questions are good question. In the event that you would like to leave a comment, I would love to hear from you. You may send your question (s) or comment (s) by clicking on this link: Contact Page
Receive more articles like this one simply by clicking on Subscribe to Second Chance to Live by email.
Subscribe to Second Chance to Live, Bookmark and Share Second Chance to Live with your friends through a Feed Reader
All material presented on Second Chance to Live is copyright and cannot be, copied, reproduced, or distributed in any way without the express, written consent of Craig J. Phillips, MRC, BA Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND
Leave a Reply