Make it a Good Day

   That was always my father's statement if someone told him to 'have a good day.'  He would respond with "I always have a good day, because I make it a good day."  and he would continue by telling the person that it is within ourselves to have the kind of day we want.  We choose how we will respond to what comes at us.  In essence, we control how we feel about things.
    When I married my past husband he had a saying on the wall written by his father. "Happiness is not having everything you want, but wanting everything you have."
    I have tried to keep these two ideas upper mind and since my husband died this past March, 2016, they have sustained me even more.  It would be easy for me to wallow in my losses, whine, and pull a big pitty party, but it would all be an act, as with these two thoughts and one other, as a rule to my day, I find myself waking up, ready for what I need to deal with.  The other?  It is from Joshua 1:9
"Have I not commanded you.  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified, Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you where ever you go."
    I found this verse in a box of devotions my Grandmother had left with my sister for me.  She had forgotten about it and sent it to me.  As it happened it arrived on a day when I was totally devastated by what was going on around me.  As I read that verse, I felt challenged and uplifted.  My God, is an awesome God, and I had nothing to fear.  As the days and months turned into years, I have never found this to be untrue, but instead my resolve to live the life God is giving me is even stronger.  He gives me what I need, I need only to trust and make it a good day, for myself and those I meet.  My attitude must reflect His Spirit within me.  My mother had left me with the challenge, "In all things give thanks".  The good things sustain me, the bad are there to strengthen me.  How can I not 'have a good day.'