I came across this letter posted online and I thought it was worth sharing. Any thoughts?

A Letter From Our Pastor

“The journey of 10,000 miles begins with the first step.” Chinese Proverb

Every New Year, just like every new day, gives us the chance to begin again. Waking to the light of day, feeling the breath of life flow in us, means we have one more chance to do just a little better than the day before. A chance to be a bit more patient. A chance to be a little more loving. A chance to give more to others and take less for ourselves. One more opportunity to forgive those who have injured us or to ask forgiveness from those we have hurt.

A new day…a new Attitude.

Central to Jesus’ understanding of how we are to live our faith are these very common, everyday decisions. Jesus spoke very little about what people should believe compared to the tremendous amount he spoke about how we should act with one another. Our actions flow from our attitude, and there is NO ONE who has control over that except ourselves.

The other day I overheard a person walking into HEB say, “He just ruined my day. I’m so worked up now I’m going to have a terrible day…” I thought to myself, “Yep, you certainly are as long as you let other people control your attitude like that!” We allow people to move us out of our peace. It isn’t their fault our attitude is bad…it is our fault.

This Fall I’ve been working on some cabinets at the house, and I have been very careful to do a good job. Then this week, when I was putting on the final handles, I drilled the holes crooked in the doors. I was SO MAD!!! Now, to correct them I would have to leave holes in the finished doors. Beth saw me right as I discovered the problem, and I was fuming!!! I said, “I just want to break something!!” I left the house to go get some hole filler at the hardware store, and it took me the entire trip there and back to work on my attitude. Why was I so mad??? After really digging underneath the anger I realized I was mad because one more time, my need to push and hurry to finish a project resulted in a stupid mistake that could have been avoided. I was furious that I had repeated a mistake I have made many times before.

I stopped and asked God to help me correct this part of my nature. To help me not be so driven to finish something that I make foolish errors. To learn to let things take the time they need. The anger began to dissipate. A more peaceful spirit returned to me. I got home, re-drilled the holes, filled the visible ones and put the handles on. The cabinets look fine.