Hope for Today--Enough

Hope is one of the most heartwarming emotions known to man. How could we exist without it? Doesn't matter how deep we sink in depression--if we have hope, we can crawl back.

Doesn't matter what rejection we suffer, if there's hope, we bounce back, stronger than ever.

If we're knocked down by the hurts and problems and troubles and setbacks of life, we stand right back up, straighter and taller than before--if we've got hope in front of us.

One of my writer buddies shared this on a loop today. Loved it. Read and enjoy and may you find the strength, the meaning, the thing that gives you the hope you need!

The Gift of Hope
by Max Lucado

The aspiring young author was in need of hope. More than one person had told him to give up.

"Getting published is impossible," one mentor said. "Unless you are a national celebrity, publishers won't talk to you."

Another warned, "Writing takes too much time. Besides, you don't want all your thoughts on paper."

Initially he listened. He agreed that writing was a waste of effort and turned his attention to other projects. But somehow the pen and pad were bourbon and Coke to the wordaholic. He'd rather write than read. So he wrote. How many nights did he pass on that couch in the
corner of the apartment reshuffling his deck of verbs and nouns? And how many hours did his wife sit with him? He wordsmithing. She cross-stitching. Finally a manuscript was finished. Crude and laden with mistakes but finished.

She gave him the shove. "Send it out. What's the harm?"

So out it went. Mailed to fifteen different publishers. While the couple waited, he wrote. While he wrote, she stitched. Neither expecting much, both hoping everything. Responses began to fill the mailbox.

"I'm sorry, but we don't accept unsolicited manuscripts."

"We must return your work. Best of luck." "Our catalog doesn't have room for unpublished authors."

I still have those letters. Somewhere in a file. Finding them would take some time.

Finding Denalyn's cross-stitch, however, would take none. To see it, all I do is lift my eyes from this monitor and look on the wall.

"Of all those arts in which the wise excel, nature's chief masterpiece is writing well."

She gave it to me about the time the fifteenth letter arrived. A publisher had said yes. That letter is also framed. Which of the two is more meaningful? The gift from my wife or the letter from the publisher? The gift, hands down. For in giving the gift, Denalyn gave hope.

Love does that. Love extends an olive leaf to the loved one and says, "I have hope in you."

Love is just as quick to say, "I have hope for you."

You can say those words. You are a flood survivor. By God's grace you have found your way to dry land. You know what it's like to see the waters subside. And since you do, since you passed through a flood and lived to tell about it, you are qualified to give hope to someone else.

What a wonderful God we have--he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does he do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us.
2 Cor. 1:3--4

Success Hints:

• Relax
• Realize there's always another day (well . . .)
• Remember from where you've come
• Reach out farther, deeper, higher. If you don't reach the stars, at least you're higher than you were!

Quote:
" One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world was better for this." -- Don Quixote

Blessings!