SLOW AND EASY

Last week I was invited by my son and his family to attend the Thomas the Train visit to a Train Museum up in Green Bay. It was a few hours of delight watching the two grand daughters get to see trains, take a ride with Thomas pulling the five car train twice around the perimeter of the museum property (Which was probably a mile at least in length...not sure!) The sounds of going over the rails and the swaying of the open car we were in brought smiles and excitement to their faces. We were able to do some crafts related to trains(stamping on paper some train images of trains from the TV show, decorating visors, and making a paper plate hat with streamers, getting a hand stamp painted of a train. and seeing real engines up close. There was live music geared to children. They have the train engine that pulled Eisenhower across country in his bid for the White House and a couple of huge open-ended hangers with many engines on display. All together we spent a good 3 hours there and had a great time.

As I continue in retirement (from the job I never had outside our home) in the job I still have 24/7 IN our home, I am reminded that retirement is an attitude and I believe has little to do with the actual amount of work a person is doing.

For example, we all have met the kinds of people who go though their day doing their jobs with a great attitude and the work hardly seems like work at all. They seem to be enjoying themselves so much that they almost seem retired. These people seem happy and bring a bit of sunshine to everyone they interact with, whether it be the clerk at the coffee shop or the secretary, or the client. These people usually have a smile on their face but more importantly, a smile in their hearts and they glow from within. I believe that everyone can have this kind of joy, of accepting and even relishing the task before them. I believe that these people try to do their very best and are not malicious towards others. They don't have a need to be one better or superior which is a juvenile activity from an immature person. Life is good for the happy person who is content and loving and accepting.

AND you might ask,,,What is the source of this happiness, this joy and sunshine, this accepting of the work before us, of difficult situations and difficult people you know are different and you can't change? I believe it comes into us from God's Word which says "Be still and know the Lord" Psalms 46:10. The whole of Psalms 46 is about God being our strength and refuge and that we don't have to fear anything or anyone. And the whole Bible is meant to sustain us, to teach us, to give us hope, peace and joy against such no enemy or disaster can win. I thank God for loving us all to give us His infallible Word and to give us eternal joy with Him through belief in His son Jesus. No matter our mistakes, or our weaknesses, He loves us unconditionally and we all need to praise Him and give Him the glory for what He has done, is doing and will do in us and our lives. It is a choice!