Positivity
First Electronic Edition 2014
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Bible quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version unless otherwise noted.
Cover design: Sharif Wilson
Interior design: Perfection Press
Library of Congress Control Number: 20144949578
eISBN: 978-0-87159-748-9
Canada BN 13252 9033 RT
Contents
Introduction
Choice
Learning to Love Again
God Is Love
Enthusiasm
In God We Trust
Rising Faith
Past the Past
Just As You Are, God Loves You
How Fair a Sight
A Wonderful Day
Giving the Gift of God
Somewhere
Body Temple
You Are Healed Now!
Reclamation
Joy
Surrendering to Love
Turnabout
Ready, Willing, Able
The Eternal Quality of Life
Live the Best
Optimism
Trusting During Tough Times
So Warm a Glow
Strength
Giving Back to Life
If Stones Had Tongues
Guidance
Reaching Out to God’s Children
Prayer Tree
Prosperity
In a Spirit of Oneness
The Dove of Peace
Enthusiasm
The Hero Within
Oneness
I Believe
The Gift Inside the Wrapping
Chance Flowers
Quietness
The Power of Love
Harvest in the Heart
Intelligence
What Would Love Do?
The Road of Prayer
Triumphant Spirit
Freedom to Be
Real and Close
Positive Attitude
Faith Answered
Seeds of Growth
Prayer
A Change of Heart
Changing World
Help From God
Our Divine Connection
It’s Always Tomorrow
Zeal
The Golden Treasure of “Two Guns”
Seek in Your Heart
This Day in History
Prosperity—Saturday, May 21, 1927—Charles Lindbergh Completes First Solo Transatlantic Flight
Power—Tuesday, October 29, 1929—U.S. Stock Market Crashes
Oneness of Spirit—Monday, June 10, 1935—Founding of Alcoholics Anonymous
I AM—Friday, June 12, 1942—Anne Frank Receives a Diary for Her Birthday
Love—Sunday, September 2, 1945—V-J Day (End of World War II)
Support—Friday, May 29, 1953—Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Become First Humans to Reach the Summit of Mount Everest
Stand Still—Monday, May 17, 1954—U.S. Supreme Court Overturns Segregation Laws in Brown v. Board of Education
Harmony—Sunday, July 20, 1969—Neil Armstrong Walks on the Moon
Prosperity—Wednesday, April 22, 1970—First Observance of Earth Day
Renewal—Wednesday, October 17, 1979—Mother Teresa Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
Forgive—Thursday, November 9, 1989—Berlin Wall Opens
Freedom—Sunday, February 11, 1990—Nelson Mandela Released From Prison
Renewal—Tuesday, September 11, 2001—9/11 Terrorist Attacks Against the United States
Listen to Life
Introduction
For 90 years, Daily Word has been a voice of hope and inspiration to a worldwide audience. Daily Word continues to set the tone for hundreds of thousands of readers each day with messages of life, light, prosperity, and peace not only for ourselves but also for the world.
Readers past and present describe the magazine as a lifeline of positive, life-affirming words. Subscribers come from many different backgrounds, representing different ages, denominations, and countries, yet we are the Daily Word family. This book features:
Daily Messages—Spanning nine decades, the messages in this book are timeless favorites as documented by generations of readers and editors. Also included are messages that appeared on days of historical events.
Inspirational Articles—Stories from the life journeys of others can inspire us, particularly those who have overcome challenges. Included are stories from Pauletta Washington, wife of actor Denzel Washington, former editors Martha Smock and Colleen Zuck, author Neale Donald Walsch, and many more.
Uplifting Poetry—Unity poet laureate, James Dillet Freeman, best known as the author of “I Am There” and the “Prayer for Protection,” wrote hundreds of poems for Daily Word. The poems featured in this book are from his remarkable collection.
After reading this book, we think you’ll agree that greeting each day with an attitude of positivity allows us to become more, to learn more, and to express more of the goodness of God than we can ever imagine. We may or may not know what events await, but we do know that Divine Life within us will bring about positive results.
Choice
I welcome this new day. It is mine to shape and to mold.
This is a new day, mine to use, to fill, to live as I see fit. How it unfolds is up to me. The choice is mine.
I can be miserable, or I can have a great day.
I can doubt, or I can have faith.
I can feel depressed, or I can express the joy that is inherent within me.
I can fear, or I can trust—myself, others, God.
I can complain about aches and pains, or I can affirm God’s perfect life within me.
I can dwell on loss, or I can seek new interests, new joy in living.
I can criticize others, or I can accept and bless them and enjoy happy and harmonious relationships.
I can harbor old grudges, or I can forgive.
I can speak of lack, or I can affirm God’s never-failing supply.
I can give up, or I can make a fresh start.
I can go it alone, or I can depend on God.
“Choose this day whom you will serve.”—Josh. 24:15
Originally appeared on September 22, 1980.
Learning to Love Again
The doctor walked into the emergency waiting room and handed me a manila envelope that contained my wife’s wedding ring and watch. Regret was etched on his face as he said, “I’m so sorry, Mr. Carpenter, but your wife is beyond any medical help that we can give her at this hospital.” Krickitt was unconscious and showing every indication of severe brain damage.
Krickitt and I had been married less than three months. We had met over the phone. I was the head baseball coach at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and Krickitt was a sales representative for a sports apparel company in California. I called to place an order, and we developed a relationship over the phone before she came to Las Vegas to watch some of Highlands’ baseball games. A year later we married.
Before Krickitt and I met, I had distanced myself from the religion of my childhood. I was searching for a spiritual foundation for my life, and Krickitt was the answer to this prayer. She had a deep and abiding relationship with God. She brought an awesome spiritual enrichment to our relationship.
The Unexpected
Just 10 weeks after the wedding, Krickitt was driving as we traveled on an interstate highway in New Mexico. We suddenly came upon a flatbed truck that was obscured by exhaust fumes and moving at only about 25 miles per hour. With not enough time to stop, Krickitt swerved to miss the truck, but our car bounced off the truck’s axle. A pickup truck that was following too closely behind us broadsided our car, flipping it over. Our car then slid upside down for more than 100 feet on the pavement.
A family who had been traveling in a van behind us was the first on the scene of the accident. This family immediately began to pray, and within a few hours of the accident, a nationwide prayer chain was active, including family, friends, and Krickitt’s Bible study group.
The accident had left Krickitt in a coma and me with lung damage, a contusion to my heart, and several broken bones. Unconscious and nonresponsive, Krickitt was posturing—one of the last things people who have a severe brain injury do prior to dying—instead of moving her arms toward the location of a pinch or a tickle to her body, Krickitt would extend her arms straight out.
Hollywood has depicted a comatose person as someone who is motionless and not interactive, but in reality some do actually converse and function somewhat while in a coma. Krickitt remained in this kind of daze for several weeks after the accident.
We were told her chance of survival was less than one percent, but the prayers of family, friends, and prayer groups were constant. In 10 days her condition had improved so that she was released from the hospital. Stabilized, but conscious for only short periods of time, Krickitt was transported to Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, where her parents lived. She began a heavy-duty regimen of rehabilitation at the institute.
One morning the doctor started asking her questions: “Who’s your mom?” “Mary,” she replied. “Who’s your dad?” “Gus.” Both answers were correct, but when they asked her, “Who’s your husband?” she answered, “I’m not married.” Further questions revealed that Krickitt had lost the past 24 months of her memory—which included all recollection of me.
Creating New Memories
Her parents urged me to go back to Las Vegas and my coaching job while Krickitt continued her therapy. Our community in Las Vegas raised enough money for me to travel back and forth between Las Vegas and Phoenix to visit Krickitt. I wanted to be with her every moment, and at times when I left to go back to Las Vegas, I felt as if I were abandoning her.
Krickitt’s first trip back to our home was for a weekend visit, and her mom accompanied her. We hoped that reintroducing her to our apartment and our personal things would jog her memory of the past two years. Although some things seemed familiar to Krickitt, she had no memory of living there or of being with me. I was devastated.
When Krickitt and I married, we made a vow never to mention the word divorce. Even though Krickitt didn’t remember that we were married, she did remember the feelings she had toward marriage. We shared a commitment that we hoped would bring us through this challenge.
One moment Krickitt had been a young woman with all the self-confidence in the world and who could light up a room with her presence. Right after the accident, she needed constant care, and I was helping feed her. Later on when she was finally up and about, she didn’t have the confidence to ride a bike or the patience to tolerate me or anyone else at times. Honoring our commitment to each other was not going to be easy for either one of us.
I wanted so much for her to remember what we had had together as a couple. The doctor had said that if she did not regain her memory within two years, she probably never would. I was living off the hope that she would begin to remember.
Learning Again
We were both struggling to adjust to my new role: helping to feed Krickitt and helping to rehabilitate her. As a result, when we did begin to build a relationship, it was more like that of a father and a daughter than a husband and a wife.
To make matters worse, we argued most of the time. Krickitt and I were both dealing with intense frustration, and she also had sudden outbursts of temper that were unlike the old Krickitt. Our relationship needed as much rehabilitation as Krickitt herself needed.
However, my focus was on her progress. I loved her so much that I wanted to do all that I could to help her once again be able to take care of herself.
One of Krickitt’s favorite Bible verses was “I can do all things through him who strengthens me,” and she held on to that truth throughout her recovery. Her spiritual strength would prove to be the key in sustaining her—and me—throughout the challenges ahead.
As time passed, I was feeling increasingly discouraged and overwhelmed. I began to doubt that we could ever make our marriage work. I was taking several different medications—from antidepressants to sleeping pills—because of my physical injuries and the emotional upheaval of what we were going through. We had almost a quarter of a million dollars of medical debts. Finally my boss gave me an ultimatum: “You’re a mess. Either you are going to have counseling, or I am going to put you on administrative leave.”
We went through counseling. First, the social worker met with me alone for a few sessions, and then he invited Krickitt in. He put into words what I had not been able to admit to myself: “Krickitt, although you have done your very best, you don’t have any memory of this guy.”
The counselor helped me realize that no matter how hard she tried, Krickitt was not able to remember. As frustrated as I was with her, she was even more frustrated with me for trying to push her. I knew I had to accept that, to her, we had no past. A doctor had said just after the accident that if she didn’t regain her memory within two years, she probably never would. I had been holding on to the hope that her memory would return before this benchmark date. Now I knew that if we were ever to have a future, we would have to build a new relationship starting that day.
A New Beginning
We started over by dating. Krickitt and I learned to love each other with a different love—not a pitter-patter love, but a solid, stronger love. Within months, we were ready to renew our vows: Krickitt wanted to have a real wedding day memory of her own. We went back to Maui to the same hotel that we had stayed in for our first honeymoon. We were building new memories.
We are ordinary people who made it through some extraordinary times by keeping our focus on God and then letting that spiritual focus enrich our relationship with each other.
Our son Danny James was born in May 2000, and he has made our family whole. He is a shining example of both the good that comes from staying together through the hard times and of the bright future that God has waiting for us on the other side of a challenge.
God Is Love
If God is love, may I not be?
Did that love not mother me
When God gave my spirit birth
And made me out of clayey earth?
If God is mind, how was I wrought?
Did God think a human thought
And express it in this warm
Flesh that is my human form?
Mother Love and Father Mind,
You and I are intertwined;
When I look for what is true
Of me, I find that it is You.
Enthusiasm
I live life with enthusiasm, positivity, and hope.
I begin this day filled with the spirit of God. My positive energy and enthusiasm are contagious. My mind and heart are open to living life fully. I experience life differently when my attitude is positive and hopeful. Where I previously saw obstacles, I now see opportunities.
I check in with myself midday to refocus my energy and to assure I am living from an awareness of the Divine. If I have allowed outer conditions to distract me or pull me off course, I adjust my attitude and outlook.