Well, sometime Mr —— git on me pretty hard. I have to talk to Old Maker. But he my husband. I shrug my shoulders. This life soon be over, I say. Heaven last all ways. You ought to bash Mr —— head open, she say. Think bout heaven later.

Then she added thoughtfully, "And that old woman that turned me off so short got down so bad in the end that she was walking on two sticks." And I knew she was thinking, though she never said it: Here I am today, my eight children healthy and grown and three of them in college and me with hardly a sick day for years. Ain't Jesus wonderful?

I talk to myself a lot, standing in front the mirror. Celie, I say, happiness was just a trick in your case. Just cause you never had any before Shug, you thought it was time to have some, and that it was gon last. Even thought you had the trees with you. The whole earth. The stars. But look at you. When Shug left, happiness desert.

Or maybe he should always just expect the worst. Most often he would be right, and the few times he was not, at least he would be pleasantly surprised.

If you know you have to wait anyway, why not make a decision to enjoy your life while you're waiting? Why not be happy while God is in the process of changing things? After all, there's nothing we can really do to make it happen any faster. We might as well relax and enjoy our lives, knowing that at the appointed time God is going to bring his plan to pass.

Certainly there are times in all of our lives when bad things happen, or things don't turn out as we had hoped. But that's when we we must a decision that we're going to be happy inspite of our circumstances.

I'm not going to get upset. I'm not going to let people steal my joy.

There is nothing wrong with asking God to change a situation. But until it happens, you have to trust that where you are is where you should be.

If you'll start overflowing with hope, believing despite what it looks like, thanking God in the difficult times, expecting things to change in your favor, then you're going to see God show out in your life.

Don't allow your circumstances or feelings to dull your enthusiasm for life and imprison you in a negative frame of mind. Starting today, expect things to change in your favor. Expect to experience the goodness of God!

If you let people discourage you, bad breaks talk you out of it, delays cause you to quit believing, then it's going to keep you from God's best.

Keep thanking God that it's coming; keep believing when it's not improving. Don't be moved by what's not changing; walk by faith and not by sight.