… expect something wonderful around the next corner…

I remember reading that phrase when I was a preteen, or I thought I had read it. Although I find hundreds of quotes re “around the corner”, I can’t find those particular words. It may have come  from Eleanor H. Porter’s book Pollyanna (1913). The idea is embedded in this classic children’s book as Pollyanna seeks to find joy even in life’s adversities.

Perhaps I understood the principle of “finding wonderful” as I internalized Pollyanna’s game of finding joy in her life after the death of her parents. However I learned of this concept, looking around the next corner for the good and wonderful has been my panacea for life (see here , my journey and those of six others through abuse).

One morning this week, I was reading my young granddaughter’s February newsletter as she reported about the ministry there in the European country where she is serving.  She requests her readers to  “please lift me up as I try something new… ask that I be granted favor in this area of growth. I ask that I be given grace and patience … and local people to help me learn.” I wept for her heart in this.

… something new…

I was thoughtful for a time as I thought of this sweet young girl asking for something new. How noble… how honest and vulnerable to request this desire. In this world of a sameness in the chaos, do we desire to learn the new?

I wonder if I, if we…  older believers ask for something new. If we ask that local people… any people… might help us learn. Perhaps I am getting too old to expect something new, something wonderful around the next corner. Have my months in a boot, on a scooter and walker blinded me from expecting new direction? The wonderful.

 “Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning… ” (Lamentations 3:22,23).

I reflected on the many “new” things in my days, the changes brought on by the accident. It was not easy peeping around the unknown for the wonderful. Even though the situation caused abnormalities, I prayed I would discover a capacity to find new in them. 

And would you believe the very next morning, as I mulled this question, this verse met me head-on to encourage me: “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you” (Isaiah 46:4). I get quite overwhelmed and over joyed when the Lord is so exact in encouraging me. How could He know I have been feeling quite hopeless in finding “the new” these days, as I begin slowly walking after these nine months.

… and that same morning… one of my favorite things is the new of early daffodils.

“For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land” (Solomon 2:11-12).

So… I will continue going around the corners, expecting wonderful, different… can we do this even in the pain?  There is one thing which gives radiance to everything.  It is the idea of something around the corner. G.K. Chesterton.

Tom and I have recently advanced on the social media stage; we have a YouTube channel sharing what we have experienced in our 60+ years of marriage. It would be “wonderful” if you check it out and subscribe if it is of interest to you. marriagematters314 (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJyJwG18yj2FdT3m6Foy8PQ)

“Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:18,19).

Don’t stop moving—the best time of your life is just around the corner so says Denise Austin (fitness expert, author and motivational speaker).

If we don’t expect something new around the corner, then we must be satisfied with the same old things in life.