Hope

HOPE is a powerful word that can nurture us in good times and bad times. It’s a feeling of trust in something we desire. We all have experienced hope at different times in our lives. It seems that many people have become somewhat indifferent when saying things like, “I hope so” or “I hope it works out”. Many times, these responses from self or others are empty hopes. I use the word “empty”, because we say them in passing and then carry on with a conversation. We tend to have the thoughts of the negative outcomes, rather than the thoughts of the positive outcomes. Let’s see if we can change this and learn to use the word HOPE as a passage to contentment and encouragement.

Take a moment and imagine a time you were involved in a situation where you had so much hope for something you were bubbling over with excitement. You remember thinking how much you hoped something would come to fruition. Here’s a few examples. Think of a small child at Christmastime.  He has taken the time to cut out pictures of a new train set he wants. He has written a note to Santa pleading for it. The little boy even sat on Santa’s lap to explain how much he wanted this specific train set. When the little boy went to bed on Christmas Eve, he drifted off to sleep and whispered, “I hope Santa brings me that train set”. Moments like this happen every day with all ages of people. There’s a strong hope in what is desired.

Imagine a couple that is in their fifth year of marriage.  They had been trying to have a baby for three of those years. They had been through endless testing and too many procedures to count. One would expect them to get discouraged and give up, instead, every month when her cycle was getting close to day 28, they would both hope that she would become pregnant. The hope kept them going, kept them on their pursuit of a biological family. It was an expectation and desire of theirs and they had trust that it would happen.

With the current pandemic going on, many of us are hoping we don’t get sick, so every day, probably many times a day, we say, “I hope I don’t get this terrible virus” and “I hope none of my family gets it”.  To think of these from a positive framework would be like this – “I am so blessed to be healthy and remain healthy today” or “It is so wonderful to celebrate the fact my family is healthy and able to enjoy their down time today”. We can find hope in the situation by focusing on the number of people who are staying healthy, as well as the people who are recovering fully from the sickness.

When we say HOPE, we might consider taking an extra moment to feel the outcome of what we hope. Feeling the emotions can be healing in many situations. When the little boy opens his gift on Christmas morning, he is overjoyed. As he tears the package open, he smiles from ear to ear. His hope has come true!

The couple that has been on an emotional roller coaster of 28-day cycles for three years has finally achieved success and had a positive pregnancy test. The emotions are too hard to contain, and their hope has turned into a precious new life.

The person who hopes she remains healthy is able to sleep easy each night she goes to bed feeling good.  It’s a sense of relief that she and her family will rest peacefully through the night.

HOPE is about being able to focus our thoughts on the positive, instead of the fears of not receiving our desires or achieving our expectations in a situation. There is happiness when we focus on hope being a pathway to self-assess, as well as it being a tool to teach mindfulness. To me, HOPE is much more about prayer than anything else. I think deeply why I’m “hoping” for something, and it usually warrants prayer time. Is what I am hoping for necessary? Is it useful in helping me grow as a person? Is it helpful in teaching my kids/family about life, contentment and love? There is so much power in focusing on the positive outcomes versus fear and hopelessness. I believe there is hope in God. It’s humbling to remember that our hope in a situation maybe isn’t the outcome that God intends. This is where trust comes in for me. We must trust that we can handle the outcome. Once we can do this, we will be able to enjoy all the blessings in our life – the small, quiet ones and the large, loud ones. Hope in the future is a beautiful gift.

A few questions….

What gives you HOPE?

What would you need to change in your thinking to be able to focus on HOPE rather than hopelessness?

Who do you know that demonstrates hope on a consistent basis? What attitudes or actions can you adopt from that person to reinforce HOPE in your life?

Growing word by word,

Jackie