Let your light shine

Christmas time and the approaching New Year have a way of bringing out the best in people. It is a time when we tend to look upward in search of peace and hope; inward for the resources to care and give freely to others; and forward to brighter and better days ahead.

But what about this year?
Considering all that is happening in the world around us, is there any reason to believe that peace and brighter days will ever come?


One of my favorite true stories makes a great thought for Christmas and the coming year-a time when we all hope to make a difference and change things for the better. It's about a humble shepherd who single-handedly transformed a barren region by planting nuts as he watched his sheep graze on a different hillside every day. Over 20 or 30 years that one shepherd reforested the entire area, which brought back the wildlife and improved the soil for farming. After that, many people moved to the once nearly deserted area and it became alive and prosperous. The shepherd slowly but surely made a difference in his part of the world.

What turned out to be a great thing was probably the result of a sudden inspiration. How many others, do you suppose, would have brushed off the idea as crazy, impossible, or not their job? Not this shepherd.
He believed and put his inspired idea into action.
What he did each day wasn't especially difficult, but he stuck with it day after day. Great things are often the result of patient plodding. He did what he could do and trusted God to do the rest.

We, too, can make a difference and influence those we come in contact with for good through our attitude and actions. A song that was popular a few years ago put it like this: ]
" If everyone just lit one little candle,
What a bright world this would be! "

We may not be able to change the whole world, but we can light our part of the world. We all can!