The school system in a large city had a program to help children keep up with their school work during stays in the city’s hospitals. One day a teacher who was assigned to the program received a routine call asking her to visit a particular child. She took the child’s name and room number and talked briefly with the child’s regular class teacher. “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in his class now,” the regular teacher said, “and I’d be grateful if you could help him understand them so he doesn’t fall too far behind.”

The hospital program teacher went to see the boy that afternoon. No one had mentioned to her that the boy had been badly burned and was in great pain. Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered as she told him, “I’ve been sent by your school to help you with nouns and adverbs.” When she left she felt she hadn’t accomplished much.

But the next day, a nurse asked her, “What did you do to that boy?” The teacher felt she must have done something wrong and began to apologize. “No, no,” said the nurse. “You don’t know what I mean. We’ve been worried about that little boy, but ever since yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He’s fighting back, responding to treatment. It’s as though he’s decided to live.”

Two weeks later the boy explained that he had completely given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he came to a simple realization. He expressed it this way: “They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?”

Hope can change the course of your future, just as a lack of hope can change the course of your future.

If someone does not believe there is a possibility of achievement they will never even try to attain it will they? When hope truly fills the heart of an individual nothing can stop them. Hope will motivate the unlikeliest people, to do the most unlikely things, in the most unlikely ways. Never underestimate the power of hope. When you have hope it blows wind in the sails of your future.

Hope gives us the drive to pursue greater things. Hope makes the future become possible. Hope puts wings on our dreams. Having a vision without the hope will merely be a fleeting thought that is here today and gone tomorrow. When people have a vision for the future they will begin to become hopeful. However, if one has no vision for a greater future they will never step out and attempt to go towards it. They will settle where they are currently positioned and survive in the status quo. George Washington Carver said, “Where there is no vision, there is no hope.”

Why can hope change the course of your future?

It changes your focus

If you don’t believe your future will get better you will not be able to recognize the opportunities around you to make it better. You will miss what is right before your eyes!

When I was in elementary I loved to play in the woods. My neighbor and I would build forts, explore, and get dirty. One day when we were playing I saw a black stick laying on the ground about 30 feet ahead of me. This stick seemed incredible for my collection of woodsy stuff. It appeared to be about 4 feet long which was a perfect height for me. When my eyes discovered it I took off running to retrieve it. I was looking back at my friend making sure he watched me collect my treasure as I approached the stick. When I reached down to pick up the stick it slithered! I screamed like a little girl, jumped in the air, and was shaking as I watched this stick turn into a snake right before my eyes. Well, maybe it didn’t turn into a snake, but I thought it did. I was certain that it was a big black stick from a distance, but it turned out it was a big black snake! It freaked me out! To this day I don’t pick up big black sticks in the woods.

I learned that perception is greater than reality. From a distance I thought it was a stick for sure. I would have bet money that is what it was. Because I had believed it was a stick I was not prepared for it to be a snake. And trust me I was severely caught off guard. I didn’t recognize the stick was a snake because snakes were not in my conscious awareness. I missed the obvious because I wasn’t prepared to look out for snakes. If I had conditioned myself to be aware of snakes in the woods, I would have been more careful. In the same way if you are not prepared and conditioned to see opportunities around you they will be easy to miss. You first condition yourself to be prepared by having hope that an opportunity will come your way. When you have hope in your awareness you will be looking for opportunities to leverage. When there is no hope for a greater future, you will miss the opportunities that come you way.

Challenge…

1. What brings you hope?

Fill your time and thoughts with the things that bring you hope. Eliminate hope-drainers in your life and pursue hope-fillers instead! Quit filling your mind with negative talk, negative news, and negative people. Start to fill your life with affirming talk, inspirational stories, and positive people! Find hope or create it within yourself and the future will move accordingly to your beliefs.