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UNDAUNTED
For a few very hard years this word was my mantra.
The word means
-undismayed; not discouraged; not forced to abandon purpose or effort
-undiminished in courage or valor; not giving way to fear
But the truth is, I was often dismayed by everything that had taken place, and I did battle discouragement. I battled fear and doubts. I hurt and was angry, and sometimes "undaunted" sounded more like a mockery than a mantra, and I was determined to be real about all of it in these posts, thus the name, Undaunted Reality. More than that, though, I was determined to live undaunted, not because I'm so great or strong, but because my God is, and no matter what this world looks like, He is the only reality that matters.
I pray I live the reality of Him beautifully undaunted.

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Moving UP and Taking Folks with You


It started innocently enough. Things like that sometimes do. It started with a note left behind. Then another. Then a response. Then flowers. Smiley faces. Like I said. Innocently enough.

A simple note.

Have a good day!

Written on a white board at school and left there for others to find...to own...to reply to...to smile because of.

And someone did. Then someone else.

Then came the really bad day that turned into a bad week, and then came the announcement:

I am going to school and hand out compliments!

And off she marched with her "Free Compliments" sign in hand to stand by the double doors of the main building on a college campus on a Friday. A FRIDAY. When most folks are grumpy...when most folks need a compliment...when most folks need someone standing there smiling at them when they walk in the door...when they walk by...when it's the kind of week that makes you want to quit, but you keep walking and a smiling face and a free compliment makes walking easier.

Next thing I knew she was handing out candy and handing out flowers and handing out smiles...handing out a better place to be...by offering a hand UP from the hard the world can be.

Then other students noticed and started walking in and standing with and handing out, and the better got bigger.

Then some professors noticed and wanted to be part of the bigger and better, and some officers were chosen, a constitution was written, and paperwork turned it. This little white board happiness had become a movement...a society...a movement to impact society.

The Universal Positivity Society (UP Society--because the point is to help lift people up after all) becomes a recognized student society by Collin College next fall, and at the helm is a young woman who simply wanted to help someone smile.

Today we smiled and laughed as we filled eggs with candy and positive quotes and bad jokes. We filled bags with the happy packages, and when we ran out of eggs, we stuck suckers with the Smarties and wrapped them in a happy thought.

And in all of it, this is my happy thought:

A young woman who knew what it was like to have a bad day wanted to make someone's day better,
 so she wrote a cheerful sentence on a whiteboard in a library on a college campus.

She didn't set out to change the school.
She just wanted to make one person's day better because she knew the weight of when days were bad.

Now she is changing the atmosphere of the college, and who knows where the UP side is spilling into once the folks carrying the impact walk out the doors.

All because one young lady wrote a note on a white board...and write another one...and someone read the words...and things got better...

To find out more about the Universal Positivity Society or to get some happy on your Facebook feed regularly and to get ideas on how to make it all better, check out The Universal Positivity Society. You might be happy you did.