hope!

Hi friends! This week we are continuing to dive into the meaning behind the name of this organization. This week’s topic is hope and I hope you enjoy!! Before we get into it feel free to check out my other blog posts, podcast and online store! I am so grateful you are here, so let’s get into today’s topic!

Hope is a hard term to define. Well, easy to define, but hard to always carry out. Hope means to cherish a desire with anticipation, to trust, and to be expectant according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Another article from ncbi.gov gave a similar definition of hope stating that it is “an optimistic attitude of mind based on an expectation of positive outcomes” and “a positive motivational state that is based on an interactively derived sense of successful agency and pathways”. With that said, a lot of us are hopeful people where we anticipate things to come, or trust in certain things for the future. We may also be hopeful in the sense of achieving our goals where we are more driven to have a positive outlook since we want to succeed. Maybe it's graduating college, getting married or getting a job. We are hopeful for the good things yet to come. When we face unexpected circumstances and our plans don't work out how we thought, that is where it can be hard to remain hopeful. Keeping that positive outlook in the challenging times is when our hope and resilience is really seen!

Remaining optimistic and keeping a positive attitude influences how we react to situations on a day to day basis. Ultimately in the long run, keeping a positive outlook to situations drastically changes how we let uncontrollable things affect us. Going back to that article from ncbi.gov, they go deeper into the neurological and psychological effects that being hopeful has. They quote other studies saying that those who are hopeful tend to better approach challenges in addition to having a buffer against the impact of negative events. Those with hope may end up being better off just because of how they handle changes.

After reading through this article I took a moment to reflect (highly recommend it!) and found that I tend to get really stressed out super quickly when little things go differently than I planned for my day. Each day is in fact a gift and I personally do not want to waste my time stressing about the little things. This is especially important when it gets to the bigger things, as I would not be able to handle anything! There is a bible story that goes along with this too. A man goes out on a journey and leaves his servants with appropriate amounts of gold according to their abilities. When he comes back he asks what his servants have done with his money. Two of the servants have invested their money and gained more so the man gives them more of his wealth to handle. The third servant decided to hide the money and did not earn anything so the man did not give the servant anymore, rather he took it away from him! If you wanted to read further this story or parable is from the book of Matthew, chapter 25 verses 14-28! I personally love this story and it’s a good reminder that we are given what we can handle and to continue working for a bigger purpose. It is a similar outcome when we look through the lens of hope. Where if we are hopeful in the small things, it will train our minds and bodies to be hopeful when challenges come.

Going into why the word hope is used in the name of this organization is quite interesting. In the last blog post I mentioned that the original name was simply titled “spread love” and I felt the need to change it. The purpose of this organization is to spread the love of God and homelessness awareness. With that comes hope. Many who are living without a home are at their rock bottom. They may not know when their next meal is to come, stay warm in the cold months or how they will get a job. As I am not homeless, nor have I been, my assumptions are based on the experiences and interactions I have had with those who are homeless . Nonetheless, there is a lot going through one’s mind as they live without a home or means to an end. With that said, through this organization I wanted to bring hope to those who may need it. In those challenging times that homelessness brings, hope can be that mental way out. Having hope for a home, a job or whatever it may be can help individuals see the light at the end of the tunnel.

In your own community you too could be that hope for someone! As I’ve mentioned in other articles, the small acts that we do each day can really have a bigger impact on the world around us. Whether or not you see your impact, it has still been made so keep going! I am so happy you were here with me today and if this was eye opening or encouraging to you, please do share it with a friend!