A Positive Attitude Makes Everything Beautiful

A kerosene lamp stood in the corner of the room on a small table; it’s faint light dispelling only a fraction of the darkness that enshrouded the tiny room.  But I could see everything.  I took it all in.

  A one room home, barely bigger than my bedroom in America.  No kitchen; just a stove top.  No bathroom.  No living room.  No closet.  Just one room.  And a growing family calls this home.

 Linoleum covers the cement floor.  A hard bed lies in the corner.  Handmade curtains cover the windows.  Plastic roses sit poised in an orange vase next to the lantern, giving what cheer they can muster.  The ceiling looks like someone painted it… maybe a blue sky with white clouds… I can’t really tell.  If it is what I imagine, I find it rather fitting since these people hardly see the sky this time of year.

  I take this all in.  I see the husband and pregnant wife.  Sadness is in their expressions.  You see, they left to go to the hospital when they though she was having labor pains.  While they were gone, a thief broke into their small one-room home and stole their money.

  My heart nearly breaks.  These people have hardly anything.  They live in one room.  The wife doesn’t even have a proper kitchen to cook from.  They don’t have a fridge, a washer and dryer, or a microwave.  And yet, someone thinks it profitable to rob these dear people of the little they have.

  Then I think of myself.  Just the day before I spent nearly 5000 rupees on souvenirs in Darjeeling.  5000 rupees could buy this family food for probably over 4 weeks.  And I spent it all in one day.

  Suddenly, I want to jump up from this home and run back to my room.  I feel like grabbing my souvenirs and rushing to the market.  I feel like selling every bit of my goods and stuffing the cash I earn it into the couple’s hands and running off before they can object.

  Why am I so privileged?  Why am I so spoiled?  What does it matter if I don’t have enough money for all the souvenirs I want to buy for my friends and family?  If only I could help this dear family.

  And then, I’m struck with the realization, that most families in these 3^rd world countries live like this… or worse.  Some children don’t know what it’s like to have a loving mother or father.  Some people have never felt a pillow.  Some think one meal a day is luxury.  Girls and boys get excited about getting a pen.  Still others think they’ve seen the world when they travel a few miles away from home.

  As I think of all this, my heart aches.  I agree with Katie Davis who described the need like “trying to empty the ocean with a dropper.”  It seems like we try so hard to help some, just to realize that there’s millions still who need help.  It makes you feel helpless, like using a dropper to empty the ocean.

  As I continued looking around the tiny room, a poster on the wall caught my attention.  It showed majestic mountains, red flowers and some butterflies… a good description of Mungpoo (minus the butterflies).  There were some words in English on it.  They said, “A positive attitude makes everything beautiful.”

  Looking at this family here living in this small domicile, one can’t imagine anything beautiful about it.  Not when we have our homes in America to compare it with.  Yet, the saying is true.  Having a positive attitude can transform this tiny dwelling into the grandest of palaces.  Having a positive attitude can make the trials here pale into insignificance.  A positive attitude can make emptying the ocean with a dropper possible… as long as God is overseeing.

  I found that I left that home, not with a feeling of discouragement and disheartenment, but with a renewed purpose…with a purpose to do what I can to empty the ocean, one dropper-full at a time.  It may take me a lifetime, yet if I keep a positive attitude, everything will be beautiful.