This I Believe: My Positive Outlook on Life

This I Believe: My Positive Outlook on Life.

​When I was nineteen I went to visit my cousins in Fiji. They are missionaries there. I went for about a month and learned a great lesson. Be positive. We visited a family who lived in a bad part of the country. There was a mom and her 6 kids. They all lived in this very small shack. One of her kids had down-syndrome and another was about my age and had already had a child of her own. They had very little but they were all smiles.

​The kids didn’t go to school. They had holes in their shirts. They didn’t have shoes. Their hair was a mess. They had to either share one big bed or sleep on the floor. They were dirty and smelly. They had chipped cups and plates. They had very little to eat and drink. Despite all of this they were the sweetest kids I have ever met. Looks can be deceiving.

I asked the mother how she could be so happy when they lived the way they did. She answered “I believe that things will get better one day. God will take care of us.” They had been shunned because they believed in god. Their neighbors stopped helping them because they were no longer Muslim or Hindu. They were completely on their own. I was shocked. I had health issues all of my life and I blamed god. I never thought that things could get better if I just believed in him. They had so little but their hearts were bigger than anyone I have met before. Without any doubts they believed that god would take care of them. They stayed positive even though so many bad things had happened to them.

They kept looking forward and things got better. The eldest and her baby moved onto one of the missionary farms and is doing very well. She sells bracelets that she makes herself at a local market. The other kids have grown some and are all still sweet. Because they kept a positive attitude things got better.

In certain parts of Fiji some people are killed because of their religion.