I really enjoy writing. At one point in my life I had the desire to actually write a book although it wouldn’t be very long for only being 28 years old. Even though it is one of the most enjoyable things and way for me to unwind and release a lot of my thoughts, I never seem to have time to sit down and just write. I guess that is the reason I have not written since November.
Anyway, I have had a very busy last couple of months and finally had a weekend to actually take the boat out for the third time since I bought it. So a friend and I loaded up and left at 5:45 in the morning and headed down towards Franklin to go bass fishing. So I caught a single bass that day but the real story begins about 3.5 hours after we had been out there. We were on the way to a fishing spot and hit something in the water; I didn’t think anything of it at the time. So I am fishing at the front of the boat, and I hear “Hey Paul, why is there water in the boat?” Now my first thought was, ok we punctured the boat on whatever we hit. We had about an inch of water in the bottom of the boat, I went to the back and checked the engine compartment, and it was almost full, the gas tank was actually floating. We were a good ways from the boat launch and from the looks of the water in the boat I was very pessimistic that we were going to make it. My friend is totally the opposite. The eternal optimist. Never said a negative thing at all. I on the other hand was thinking the worst. Actually what was going through my head was the survival show with Bear Grylls where he deliberately puts himself in unrealistic positions to show how to survive. I’m thinking, the boat is going to sink and we will have to ditch it and walk. I was fully prepared to do that. I mean, how many people can actually have a story saying they sunk their boat? It does make for a pretty compelling story. Anyway, all in all we made it back to the landing and loaded the boat on the trailer. Upon inspection of the underside of the boat, it looked fine. We pulled the boat back to the house and tried to figure out where the leak came from. Well it turns out that the pump for the live well broke and water was just coming into the boat. So it was about a $50 fix.
The point of the story though is as the title says. This is a good illustration about 2 different outlooks to the same situation. Who do you want to surround yourself with? This is really bigger than a fishing trip, who do you want speaking in to your life? If you surround yourself with pessimistic people chances are you will assume that character and that same outlook. It really is nice to have that optimist viewpoint speak into areas of your life especially when it comes to spiritual areas and marriage
If you recognize an area of your life that you need to work on, surround yourself with people that have the characteristics you would like to have. It really is amazing how your attitude and outlook on many situations affect so many other areas of your life. You can speak life and death with the power of the tongue. I know this is an area I have been working on for the last few months. My attitude towards many things has changed, it has changed the way I see things and take things. Things that used to annoy me and get on my nerves don’t really bother me as much. I know that I still have areas that need work but I am trying to focus on the positive and not so much on the negative. Being critical even when trying not to be rude can do a lot of damage if not done the right way. It has truly been a great few months and this is the happiest I have been in a long time. Happiest might not be the right word, satisfied might better describe how I feel. Satisfied but not complacent. I am looking forward to the next few months and see what God is going to continue to do in our lives. Till Next Time.
Life Journey's 