When Summer 2013 approached, I was dreading it. Summer is my favorite season, and I love when the kids are off school, the days are long, and the weather is warm. But that year had been an exceptionally hard one and the months ahead looked dreary. My husband had been fighting oral cancer for twenty years and his condition was worsening. It wasn’t going to be healthy for any of us to sit around and feel sad all summer, but God had our back. He gave me an idea I would have never thought of myself – to change our perspective.
When my twelve- and fifteen-year-old sons came home on the last day of school, I declared it to be The Best Summer Ever! I found a composition pad, christened it our journal, and labeled the cover: “2013 – The Best Summer Ever!” For the next three months we recorded all our day trips and vacations and wrote commentaries about them. We added pictures and ticket stubs and asked friends and family, who accompanied us on our adventures, to write in it too. Our sons wrote about their baseball highlights and camp escapades. Some people added drawings. That journal is a real treasure.
This strategy worked. In reality, that was one of the worst summers of my life, but it isn’t how we remember it. Kenny’s health continued to worsen, but we kept a positive attitude and continued to record our fun and quirky experiences in our journal. Thinking back on it eleven years later, I wondered how my now adult sons remember that year. Last week, I asked each of them separately, “What would you say was the best summer ever?” They both said it was the year we declared it to be so. They most definitely have each had better summers before and after 2013, but our attitude etched a lasting impression on all of our memories.
Heading into 2025, I expect some of us are dreading something. You may be anticipating it to be your worst year ever. Do not underestimate the importance of keeping a positive attitude. Most importantly, pray for God to inspire you with survival strategies. As Viktor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning, famously said, “We cannot avoid suffering, but we can choose how to cope with it.” If you decide that 2025 will be your best year ever, it can be, no matter how the year unfolds.
Scripture: Read Deuteronomy 31:8. What stands out?
Call to Action: Check out “God Turn it Around” by Jon Reddik at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7-IAFogxcM – a beautiful song to inspire us when challenges arise.
