I am a Christian and celebrate the values associated with Christmas time. For those of any other religion or belief, it’s my wish that you find some ideas that are valuable for you as New Year and holiday thoughts!
Last week I spoke for a wonderful organization, St Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City, if you ever find yourself sick in OKC, head for them! They are wonderful and have such a spirit centered culture with a young and dynamic leadership team who are transforming a typical hospital culture into one that is like a 5 star hotel with the best medical and health services you could imagine! It would work for me!
Really they are very special, caring, compassionate people who try to cater for people’s every need. They had a series of spirit days for their staff, an annual recognition event, and during a heart warming documentary from patients and staff, I was reminded of a very valuable phrase from the Bible.
"This is the day the Lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in it."
-PSALMS 118:24
Isn’t that a great motto for each day from now on? If we woke up each morning and these were the first thoughts in our mind or words out of our mouths, imagine how different our day could be!
Even if you don’t have a Lord in your belief system, wake up and think that this day is created, the sun has risen and you will rejoice and be glad in it!
Remind yourself of this statement during the day, it’s a reminder that we have a choice over how we feel! It’s our decision to be joyful or grumpy! No, it is not other people dragging you down and making you feel miserable, much as we would like to blame them!
How we feel is pretty much our decision, it takes will forces and courage to feel cheerfully optimistic no matter what happens, but we can do it if we want to. We may feel badly over something initially but then our will forces can kick in and we can choose to feel differently!
So that is my first suggestion for Christmas day or any other holiday festivity with which you will be involved. Choose to enjoy it no matter what and take control of your feelings and emotions!
The second is an idea for a New Year resolution! Christ was the model for unconditional love. I am not sure any human can be as loving as He was but we could aim for unconditional like!
What if we spent a part of each day of 2008 being conscious of unconditional love and like, of ourselves and others? Mary, a very dear friend of ours, gave me a wonderful definition of unconditional love last week.
‘Unconditional love is present when we choose to believe the other person has our best interests at heart and they are just messing up right now or don’t know what else to do, and that they do love us! We are always looking out for them and trying to see things as they see them. All we want to do is be there for them with their best interests at heart. And we need to love ourselves unconditionally as well.’
Two useful questions to ask ourselves in each interaction with others are:
- how is he/she/the other person feeling right now?
- how can I think about this so it doesn’t bother me right now!
This works for me! And maybe it will for you! Make 2008 the ‘year of unconditional love, of ourselves and others.’ Be conscious of this aspect of life and work towards loving yourself more and loving others better!
No matter what your religion or beliefs, love is at the core of all of them, so - this is the day the Lord has made, rejoice, be glad and love everyone! And if you feel like that every day, soon it will be a YEAR of joy, gladness and love!
TA DA!
Blessings, Happy Christmas, Holiday and New Year from all of us in our office, thank you for being such loyal and wonderful readers and for your encouragement, support, and love - during 2007.
