LOVE IS POSITIVE: IT’S OPTIMISTIC

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We basically have two kinds of human beings: those who think of life as a privilege, hopeful and exciting – The Optimists – they are those with the Positive Mental Attitude (PMA); and we have those who think of life as an endless string of problems, hopeless and boring – The Pessimists – they are those with the Negative Mental Attitude (NMA).

Love has positive thoughts, and is hopeful and enduring. Someone rightly said, “What we wish for is what we hope for, and what we hope for is what we expect.”

Love Has Realistic Hope

Love is hopeful, but it doesn’t ignore the difficult realities of life. Love is positive, but it doesn’t attempt to ‘drain the entire sea with a teaspoon.’

Love accepts the fact that things are not well and everyone has weaknesses, but deals with them with a positive mindset. The fact is that there are some things we will never be able to do or change, no matter how we try! But we must find a possible productive and positive way to handle them.

Someone rightly said, ‘For every evil under the sun, there is a remedy or there is none. If there is one, seek till you find it; if there is none, never mind it.’

There will always be situations and circumstances so difficult and even painful we cannot change. The one thing that we can change, and we are only responsible to change it, is our attitude and response to those situations, circumstances and people.

Love doesn’t hope in everything with blindness. It knows that which is important, worthy and merits it lifetime effort.

Love Endures; It Doesn’t Quit Too Easily

A man was to swim the full length of a pool from the starting to the finishing line for a price. After swimming half-way, he complained of fatigue. He swam back to the starting line, and could not finish the race.

The interesting and sad story is that, he swam the “full length” of the pool, but never got to the finishing line to receive the price.

“The line between failure and success is so thin that we scarcely know when we pass it; it is so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it.”

Many at times, we throw our hands up in despair when a little more effort, a little more patience and endurance would have turned that which seemed hopeless failure into glorious success. There is no failure except at the time we make up our mind we will no longer try. The only time we have to succeed at something is the last time we try. It doesn’t really matter how many times we stumble and fall. We need to fight one more round; that may be the round of success. That may be our stepping stone and springboard.

Love is a winner, but it loses more often; it keeps falling, but it keeps getting up. However, the losers – those who cannot endure – fall once; sometimes not, and they quit. 

Love believes that all things work together for good. It fixes its attention on worthy goals. No matter the challenge, it perseveres until it is done.

The Fruits of Optimism

An optimistic mindset has profound effects on every aspect of our lives. A positive mental attitude works best for us and for those who are associated with us.

Spiritually: Jesus Christ’s crucifixion was worse. His resurrection three days later has been best thing to have ever happened to the world.

The optimistic person thinks of his day of trouble as his “day of crucifixion”, and hopes that his “day of resurrection” will surely come. He thanks God even before his prayers are answered.

Physically: Our view of life, whether positive or negative, whether we hope for the best of things or not, affects our health. Studies show that our attitude has profound impact on our immune system. A positive attitude builds and strengthens our immune system; a negative attitude weakens it.

Placebos – pills or medicines prescribed for their psychological effect, but have no physiological effect – works on the optimist because they always think they will be better, they are getting better, they are better, and it works. The pessimist, on the other hand, doesn’t think so, and they get sick more often.

Relationally/Socially: Hopeful and optimistic people are just more fun and lovely to be around. They are friendlier and so have many friends. On the other hand, pessimists, who think others don’t and won’t like them tend to build walls around themselves.

Emotionally: The most obvious sign of an optimistic person is a warm genuine smile. Someone rightly said, “We smile not because we are happy; we are happy because we smile.” The optimist laughs to forget; a pessimist forgets to laugh.

Economically: Obviously, our view of life has enormous effect on our success at business. Optimistic people tend to perform better than their equally and even more talented and qualified but pessimistic colleagues, no matter the field. Arguably we need persistence and endurance more than talents and education. 

Love is always hopeful of the future. It endures even when things go wrong. It doesn’t quit in times of trial and hardships.

“Press on!” “Keep on keeping on!” No matter what worthy field of life you find yourself, be hopeful and enduring. Be positive. Be optimistic.

Reference: 

• Habits of a Loving Heart by Willard Tate