Living with Hope

Every morning I receive a daily meditation from the Henri Nouwen Society on my email. 

For me it's a perfect way to start the day. 

So often I forget to open my bible and instead open my email, and then 'BAM!' there's a meditation right in front of me to help me begin my day with God. It's a good thing!

You can sign up for free!

My favorite bracelet

Today this is what I read:

'' Living with Hope

Optimism and hope are radically different attitudes. Optimism is the expectation that things-the weather, human relationships, the economy, the political situation, and so on-will get better. Hope is the trust that God will fulfill God's promises to us in a way that leads us to true freedom. The optimist speaks about concrete changes in the future. The person of hope lives in the moment with the knowledge and trust that all of life is in good hands.

All the great spiritual leaders in history were people of hope. Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Mary, Jesus, Rumi, Gandhi, and Dorothy Day all lived with a promise in their hearts that guided them toward the future without the need to know exactly what it would look like. 

Let's live with hope. ''

This has been such a truth for me in the past years. When we were struggling through infertility there was absolutely no reason to be optimistic a lot of the time, things looked so dark for us and we knew that our biggest wish might never come true. It was so hard not knowing what our future would look like. 

But there was one thing that kept us on our feet:  'Hope'.

Hope and trust in our God who knew what we were dealing with, and who would see us through, whatever the outcome. 

Optimistic, no, not always. But I never lost hope.

Love, Maria