Green Beret

Anything ever happened to you that you just could not get over? Captain Brien Thomas Collins lost an arm and a leg in Vietnam.  He was a Green Beret on his second tour of duty when the grenade exploded, shredding his body and nearly ending his life. He spent 22 months in seven military hospitals as doctors pieced him back together. His attitude about what he lost; outstanding. “So I lost an arm and a leg in Vietnam, then with a smile on his face he says, but I still have an arm and a leg.” It’s never about what you lose it’s about what you have. We have all lost something, as we go through this life but we must never spend our time on what we’ve lost for that will only bring a depressed life and an attitude of sorrow. I am reminded of a man and his wife who were in a Church service when their Pastor read a note from the pulpit. It was a note from a mother who had lost her son in an ongoing war and with the note a check. That is when this man’s wife elbowed him in the ribs and told him that they should write a check too. Her husband said “sweetheart we didn’t lose our son in a war.” Her response was simply “I know and that is why we should be thankful.” The lesson here is sometimes we spend too much time on what we have lost and not what we have. We can name what we have lost and use up two to three or more sheets of paper writing them but how much paper would it take to write what we have. The Bible says that men love darkness; think about it, on a day to day basis what do we hear? Will we hear more good or will we hear more bad? The bad will far outweigh the good on a daily basis.  In our own lives do we remember what we have lost or what we still have? I remember while in the Military being told by another soldier these words. He said “years from this night and all the bad things you have experienced what will stand out in your mind the most is not the bad but the good.” He was right and today I still covet the attitude, and this will pass too. Weren’t you glad you were able to get up this morning? Are you glad you have enough air to breathe? Are you glad you could still hug your children and see the sun rise? Aren’t you glad others love you? Aren’t you glad you love others? My best friend called me this past Saturday and said let’s meet for breakfast one morning next week. I said sure; now I’m not excited about breakfast or even the place we’ll meet but I am excited about the time we will spend together. I’m thankful that I have friends that want to be around me. Now think, what do you have to be excited about? It has to be something that you have not something you have lost.

Galatians 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Galatians 6:10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.