Consult not your fears, but your hopes and dreams.

Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential.

Concern yourself not with what you have tried and failed in,

but with what it is still possible for you to do.

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli

 

Last week I introduced the above quote by Roncalli.  Where it took me was to my hope and dream of learning presence, as that is one very tough challenge for who I am and my personality type.

And last week I separated the quote into two parts, the looking back part and the looking forward part, remember?  It looked like this:

  • Here is the looking back part:
  • Consult not your fears……
  • Think not about your frustrations……

Concern yourself not with what you have tried and failed in……

And here is the looking forward part I am committed to:

  • … but your hopes and dreams
  • … but about your unfulfilled potential
  • … but with what it is still possible for you to do

It is the looking back part at the fears, frustrations, the failures that is so detrimental to growth, but so easy to get caught up in.  Who has not faced those and fallen into the trap of letting them dominate too much of our time, emotional and psychological and even spiritual energy?

After all, the society we live in breeds the ‘victim’ mentality and the belief that if we do not get what we want, then we are not fulfilled. Servant leadership is cast aside as old fashioned, and sacrificial love is completely unknown.

But our manhood, our leadership calls for something else: a commitment to those hope and dreams, fueled by our unfulfilled potential that makes still possible that which might be beyond the reach of the average man.  And it is our special needs kids that challenges us to that leadership of self and the commitment we need.

I refuse to look at my situation as a burden. I will not let that idea occupy any space in my mind or heart, because it is the seed of resentment. No, while I acknowledge that I have a lot of responsibilities most dads do not, I see my situation as blessing. I CHOOSE that view as surely as I could choose self-pity, but do not.

We CAN choose how we look at our situation and we can choose how we will NOT look at our situation. We can choose what we allow to fill our hearts and

If we choose to live our unfulfilled potential by choice, it will energize our lives, and those around us. Now that is leadership! That is being gift to another!