My Motto For Life

Last night, I was doing part of my distance learning course, which involved reading a bit of Ecclisiasties. This is widely regarded, it seems, as the most miserable book in the whole Bible, with the writer basically saying eveything is meaningless, that being good and being bad is pointless because you're going to die anyway, etc. Now, as quite a cheerful person I must confess I've never really paid much attention when I've been reading through the book before. I can't have been or I would surely have spotted what basically amounts to my philosophy for life:

I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everythign beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in hte hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Here's the best bit!) I know that there is nothing better for man than to be happy and to do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil--that is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. god does it so that men will revere him. (Ecclesiastes 3 v 10-14)

Isn't that just great?! I have now found Biblical authority for my philosphy of 'smile, you're not dead yet'. And in the most gloomy book of the Bible. Do you know what the really cool bit for me is? I just spotted it while I was looking back over and going 'yeh, that's cool'. My real name is Joanna, and that means gift from God. So: 'That everyone may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all his toil--that is Joanna'. :) Okay, I know you don't really do that sort of thing, and it's probably not accurate etc, but it's still really cool, because that's how I see life and the words there have the meaning of my name. If I have to do something, I do it willingly, cos it might as well be done as best I can, right? Make the most out of life you can--you never know when the next opportunity to do it will be. Plus if you try and make the most out of something, you generally find you get more from it than you expected. Look at an obstacle as a challenge rather than a barrier. Look at work as something to put your guts into and I think you'll find it gives you something back. Go for it!