I found this entry in my journal from a couple weeks ago. I’m on the vacation that I longed for then. But I thought I would share my thoughts with you.

Did you ever have such a bad day that you just wanted to crawl into bed and wake up the next morning, so you could start all over. There’s something about a new day that gives us the hope of an opportunity to start over, make a change, make things better.

This morning I got up to a dreary Ohio October morning. It was cool for early October, and it was drizzling. And everything seemed to go wrong. But on the way to work I noticed a pink glow in the east. The sun was rising, and it gradually lit up more and more of the dreary overcast sky. By the time I got to my office the sun was up, but hidden behind the clouds. It was dreary again. I walked into the office in a steady sprinkle of rain.

The unexpected sunrise had lifted my spirits. I would be taking a vacation in the near future, and the sunrise reminded me of that fact. It gave me hope. It reminded me that I would have a change of schedule for a brief period, a respite from the monotony of the usual daily grind.

By the time I walked into the office, the glow in the sky was gone, and the cloudy wet morning told me that there was some “routine” before the fun began. But I still remembered the sunrise. It still lifted my spirits. And it gave me a little boost to make it through the day.

Hope is like that. We need it to survive life’s struggles. We need it to hang in there with the expectation of something better in the future. Sometimes we need it to remind us and motivate us to work for that change. Without hope we may as well lie down and die.

So what hope do you find that helps you make it through life’s struggles? Where do you find the strength to keep going? What gives you the anticipation to keep working for improvements or a goal?