Look at the bright side

Hello everyone! How is your day going? I hope it is magnificent! Right now I am at the beach with my family having a blast. This is a much needed vacation/getaway! I love the beach so much and when we go to the beach it is truly one of the best parts of my summer. We arrived yesterday afternoon and when we first got here we could not wait to go to the shore after our long car ride. To our surprise when we got down there the shore and water was covered in seaweed. Despite the seaweed the temperature was delightful (not too hot) and the waves were the perfect size. My dad and sister went boogie boarding while I stayed on shore and supervised because I was a little worn out from the long trip. Yesterday we thought that all of the seaweed would interfere with our beach experience and keep us from doing what we wanted to do like swimming but it did not! My family went out in the ocean and as they fought their way through the seaweed they noticed that people were picking up crabs and shrimp. The crabs and shrimp had gotten caught in the seaweed and everyone was catching them for fun! Sometimes we need to stop for a minute and look at situations with a different perspective. What we think is a setback is often an opportunity to learn something new about God's world and His creation. Yes the seaweed was pretty gross but it was so cool to be able to see all of these little creatures that My God created. This past year has been extremely tough and hard for me but I honestly would not take back anything that happened. My situation is definitely not fun at times but because I am able to look at it with a different perspective I am able to have a good attitude. Whatever is going on in your life right now I challenge you to stop for a minute and try to see the light at the end of the tunnel. One of my favorite quotes by Dolly Parton is "storms make trees take deeper roots". It is so hard sometimes to look at the bright side and try to see the good our situations (I am the first to admit that I fail and sometimes get so caught up in the negativity). When we get caught up in all the negativity we tend to forget all of our blessings from God. These blessings are never-ending but we need to learn to always be able to see them no matter our circumstances. I would like to ask everyone to pray for my sweet friend Leslie as she has gallbladder surgery on Tuesday. Leslie is a patient at St. Jude and she has ALL (a form of leukemia). She is such a wonderful girl but she has had a very hard journey to say the least. Please pray that the doctors will be able to remove her gallbladder without any complications and that Leslie will have a speedy recovery. Pray over her family so that the LORD will grant them comfort during this time. Also please continue to pray for the Colletti family as they deal with facing their daily challenges without their son Andre (one of my friends from St. Jude) who passed away recently. I love each and everyone of you who has kept up with me and given me their prayers through my journey as a cancer patient. I cannot say thank you enough and there are no words to express how truly grateful I am. Have a blessed day!