Will You Come Aboard?
I am riding on a train called determination that is bound for a station called success. The train is already roaring down the tracks at full steam ahead.
I would love to have others come aboard and join me for the journey; however, they need to realize that this train has a definitive schedule to keep and the conductor will not wait too long at any one station for anyone to decide if they want to get on board. Also, those who do decide to board this train need to already have their minds set that they are going to stay on board until the train reaches the last station, and not want to get off at the first little town called indecisiveness hoping that maybe the train will pass through again, and they will have another chance to ride.
I will not beg, coerce, or make anyone feel obligated to ride this train that I am on. The only thing that I ask is that if you have no want to get aboard, then please clear the tracks and step aside and allow this train to come through and be on its way. In short, if you cannot support me on this journey that I am on, then please stay out-of-the-way and don’t become a hindrance either. Thank you and God bless you.
From Whence We Came
There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to climb up the ladder of success in life so long as we remember not to crush the fingers of those who help steady that ladder as we climb from rung to rung. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to move from one station in life to a different station in life so long as we remember to thank the Conductor of the “train” for getting us to the new station unscathed. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to cross a bridge to get to the other side so long as we do not attempt to dismantle the bridge as we are crossing it in hopes of using its wood as logs and kindling to build a fire to celebrate our crossing over. There is absolutely nothing wrong with closing one door behind us and opening new doors of opportunity so long as we remember not to slam any door in the face of the ones who helped open those new doors in our lives.
We cannot live productive and successful lives if we continually focus on those things that are behind us, and never gain sight of those things that lay just before us. By the same token, as we press forward in life, we should not obliterate our past from our memory, for it is things of our past that help to bring us to our present, and ultimately bring about our future. Let us continue to forge ahead, but in our progression, let us never forget whence we started.
With A Child’s Heart
I should hope that I never grow so old as to forget what it is like to laugh and play as a child, enjoying the simpler things of life.
I hope that I shall never grow so old that I spend my life living enclosed in a box, wearing blinders, and having obscure vision, but that I may still be able to view the world through the eyes of an innocent child as a place of beauty and wonder as God created it.
I pray that I shall never grow so old that my heart becomes cold and calloused, shutting out the world and only thinking of myself, but that I can be as accepting as a child who has a warm heart and open arms to welcome in everyone he or she meets.
But most of all, I sincerely pray that I shall never grow so old as to forget what being loved is like, but even more importantly, how to love unconditionally as with the heart of a child.
What is Hope?
Hope is the song of the heart that soothes the troubled mind and the weary soul enabling the belief that although things are not as expected at this particular moment, all is not lost, for there does shine a light at the end of a seemingly dark tunnel.
Hope invigorates the mind and gives vitality to an otherwise doleful life. Hope develops within a person the realization that the well of life has not run dry, but rather the pump just needs priming with the water of faith, and then, once again the cool refreshing water of life can be drawn from the well.
Hope gives a person the courage to continue to press forward at times when it may seem that there is nothing worth pressing forward for. As long as hope can stay alive, life has a whole new meaning and purpose. It is when a person begins to lose hope that his life begins to come to an end.
The Grass is Not Always Greener on the Other Side
As we journey down the road of life we find that there are times when we will need to stop and take a respite. As we sit and ponder about our life, looking out over the horizon, from where we may sit at any given station in our life, we envision that the pastures over yonder are much greener than any pastures that we have ever come across.
At times, as we travel along we may feel that our wagon wheels are turning, but it doesn’t ever seem that we are making much ground. It seems that our life is stuck in a rut, and that we have traveled down the same old dusty road for far too long. Even the pastures that we do come across in our travels seem more like dry, barren desserts. We grow weary and yearn for those luscious green pastures just over yonder, convincing ourselves that life would be much sweeter if we could just get from here to there.
In time we may arrive at those pastures that we envisioned. When we do, we find that we feel better about ourselves because our long and arduous journey is finally over. We believe that our life has finally taken a turn for the better, and that the roads ahead will proffer us much smoother travel. However, though the pastures that lay before us seem inviting, we may find over time, after we have been able to bask in the sunshine as it were, that these pastures are really not any greener than the pastures that we left, and the roads that we travel down are not any smother than the roads that we were use to traveling on. We begin to realize that some of the same troubles that we had to face and deal with back where we came from are the same troubles that we have to face and deal with now with perhaps some new ones added to the seemingly ever-growing list.
Indeed the pastures may seem greener, and we may envision life being sweeter over yonder, but that is not always the case. Sometimes we may find that once we get to those “greener pastures”, what we had, was really not as bad as what we had thought. Let us not be so hasty to always want to get to “greener pastures” over yonder, but let us be thankful for those pastures that we have right before us. We may soon discover that any pastures that we come across in life are as green as we make them.
Of Common Sense 