Sarah is the kind of person you love to hate. She is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask her how she was doing, she would reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!” She was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Sarah was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked her, “I don’t get it. You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?”

She replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or … you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or… I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or… I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.”

“Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,” I protested.

“Yes, it is,” she said. “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live your life.” I reflected on what she said. Soon hereafter, I left to pursue another business opportunity. We lost touch, but I often thought about her when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that she was involved in a serious accident. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, she was released from the hospital with still months of therapy and recuperation.

I saw her about six months after the accident. When I asked her how she was, she replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins. Want to see my scars?” I declined to see her wounds, but I did ask her what had gone through her mind as the accident took place.

“The first thing that went through my mind was my children,” she replied. “Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or … I could choose to die. I chose to live.”

“Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?” I asked. She continued, “The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ’she’s a dead woman’. I knew I needed to take action.”

I asked, “What did you do?”

“Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,” said Sarah. “She asked if I was allergic to anything. ‘Yes, I replied.’ The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘freeways!’”

Over their laughter, I told them, “I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.” She lived, thanks to the skill of her doctors, the healing power of God, but also because of her amazing attitude. I learned from her that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is a choice! Life is a choice! Live it with intentionality and purpose!

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34. After all, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.