I decided to create a blog to replace a lot of emails etc. In this age of texts, tweets, emails and such the internet is a wonderful way to keep in contact with friends. I was told by a police officer about 10 years ago Othat 70% of internet usage was for pornography. How sad! on the other hand, the internet offers endless possibilities for good, and that is what I intend to do- add one small voice for good to counter to the sea of negative stuff available on the internet.

My plan is to share this blog with friends that have experienced setbacks in their lives-

·       received a bad diagnosis

·       suffer chronic pain

·       lost a parent

·       lost a child

·       have a child with a serious illness

·       have financial challenges

·       have challenges with children, parents, spouses, or other family members

·       suffer with any number of things

 That might make us wonder: “did I really sign up for all this stuff"?
You may see yourself on this list in more than one area.

I have had my share of challenges over the past three years, and I won't bore anyone with the details. I have come to realize that a lot of good have come from my suffering. When these things happen to someone we face the choice of how we will react. Two of my favorite quotes come to mind:

“Inside of me are two ravenous animals. One is an animal of fear and doubt. The other is an animal of love and faith. Which one will live? The answer is, the one I feed.”
Anonymous- From p. 93 John Lund, The Art of Giving and Receiving Criticism

And this one:

Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In those choices lie our growth and our happiness.
Victor Frankl        

Victor Frankl is a great example of this principle.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man's_Search_for_Meaning

That's right- we have the choice to internalize our pains and problems, dwell on them, and become a jaded and bitter soul, or we can look for the silver lining in our personal clouds and lift ourselves.

As I said previously, I have seen some positives in my recent challenges- best described by the following two quotes:


“A sculptor does not use a 'manicure set' to reduce the crude, unshapely marble to a thing of beauty. The saw, the hammer and the chisel are cruel tools, but without them the rough stone must remain forever formless and unbeautiful.

To do His supreme work of grace within you, God will take from your heart everything you love most. Everything you trust in will go from you. Piles of ashes will lie where your most precious treasures used to be!”

— Aiden Wilson Tozer in the opening monologue of The Heart of Texas

And

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."
— C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)


Some of you will recognize these quotes, as I have sent them to many of my friends who have recently suffered challenges in their lives.

My idea for this blog is to share some positive, good, uplifting stories or quotes that I have collected over the years.

During the 18 months, my daughter Jennifer was on a church mission in Texas, I wanted to be able to write to her each week. I had a problem in my left arm/wrist that caused me to have to keyboard with only my right hand, so I used "cut and paste" to send her copies of these stories every week.


I have taken the name for my blog from a variation of the BYU television slogan : "See for the Good in the World", and changing it slightly.

I will be sending out an email to my friends with a link to the blog. I would invite anyone to share their stories or quotes with me so I can include them in the blog. Since everyone is busy, I will try to add a story once a month or so.