I have always loved the story of AJ Muste, who stood in front of the White House holding a single lit candle during the Vietnam War. Night after night, many times in the rain, he stayed there with his candle. One night, a reporter approached him and asked, “Do you really think you’re going to change the world or the policies of this government by staying here holding a candle?” He replied, “I’m not doing this to change the world, I’m doing this so the world won’t change me.”

When I was a school teacher, I found some teachers who were bitter about the end of their career. But I realized that it was not the teaching profession, it was all professions. You go in full of enthusiasm but suffer some unfair setbacks, which every profession eventually offers, and then the world changes you. You become the test and eventually that becomes your fabric. The fact is, research studies find that seven out of ten people are angry all day. Were they born like this?

If we don’t stay on top of this topic, this happens to all of us, or at least seven out of ten. How did this happen? A study was published in the Wall Street Journal saying that the number one factor in our weight is the weight and habits of our friends. If they are healthy we become healthy. We become what surrounds us. The opposite has to be true then, if they are bitter and negative, what fate awaits us? We will become bitter and negative.

You and I have been there. We’re perfectly cool and we get in a car on the freeway and it starts. I once came off a busy ramp and a guy pulled up next to me in a minivan and pretended to shoot me with his finger, making it look like a gun. I found myself very different from five minutes before. Like I said, we’ve all been there.

Also, who hasn’t been in contact with someone very critical at work? They have many opinions about others, what occupies their day, and they love to share them. They get some sort of secondary gain from judging. Which keeps you and I from getting as angry as they are and falling into the seven out of ten trap. It is a trap that allows evil to have an advantage over us.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. We must choose otherwise. Instead of looking for something that allows us to fall into category seven out of ten, look for something that allows us to fall into category three out of ten. Wake up and make a statement, I’m going to look for, and only, one new thing to be grateful for today I’m going to look for something admirable in a person. I will be grateful that a person has crossed my path.

According to the words written in red, we should react in this way, If someone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar, because he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not been seen (1 John 4:21). We must make a conscious decision that we are going to be the three of the ten. We do this by setting sail and saying, “Tonight when I lay down to fall asleep, I’m going to say out loud, thank you for this new thing I found that kept me as one of the three. This thing enabled me today. Don’t let this world change me.” I finished this day and I will start tomorrow with the heart of a child.”

Meister Elkhart said that if you could say just one sentence, let it be: “Thank you.” Thank you Karen for being a great wife and best friend. Thank you Claire and Jared for bringing me more joy in my life than I ever thought possible. and thank you, the reader of this newsletter, for being the best audience when I’m out there and bringing even more meaning to what I do.” I just finished my one sentence.