Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 579 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Optimism - The Tools in Gramps' Backpack

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 579 of our trek, and it is Motivation Monday. We are hiking a series of trails called The Tools in Gramps’ Backpack.

Each Monday for a total of 20 weeks, we are exploring a different tool that is needed to motivate and equip parents and grandparents to train their children and grandchildren to be successful on their trek of life. If you don’t have children or grandchildren of your own, use these tools to train others that you do influence. Today the 14th tool from Gramps’ Backpack is Optimism.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. I am recording this before the weekend, but if all goes according to plan and the weather cooperates, I will be investing most of my time during this weekend continuing to cut up the large trees that we had cut down in March. There is a lot left to complete, so I doubt that this project will be finished.

This last week has been a busy one, but we were able to complete the remaining tax returns that were on our schedule. We are optimistic that we can now focus more time on some of the other projects that need our attention. Having an optimistic, but realistic outlook and focus on life is imperative to success in all areas of life. It is also a crucial character trait to teach to our children, grandchildren, and others that we impact. They will certainly learn more by observing us and how we view various situations of life.

Although I grew up in a poor family financially, my parents always displayed an optimistic outlook on life. They were so rich in many others areas of life. I learned that material wealth was not nearly as important as having wealth in the non-material areas, such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the character traits that we need to optimistically pass on to others.

So the tool that we will explore today is...

Optimism

Optimistic parents and grandparents will use the power of positive thoughts to improve their own lives, and then pass those traits onto those that they impact. Especially as Christ followers, we have every reason to be optimistic about life. The green grass, the blue skies, and all of creation give us ample reason to be optimistically joyful.

How many times though is rejoicing the last thing on our minds? Too often we fall prey to worry, frustration, anxiety, and sheer exhaustion that cause the burdens of life to weigh us down. What is needed is plenty of rest, exercise, nutritious food, and a large dose of realistic perspective. Sure life is hard sometimes, but being optimistic and joyful about life makes it so much easier.

An optimistic attitude about life is all-important. Let the soul take a quiet attitude of faith and love toward God.

When we truly put our faith and trust in God and realize that He controls all of life, we can rest in the fact that He will indeed see us through anything that we may face. This is a reminder to us that even when the challenges of the day seem overwhelming, and even those times when our hearts are broken, God remains steadfast, and so must we. Jesus’s half-brother James tells us in Chapter 1 verses 16-18, "So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow 18 He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession."