The beginning of Hope Filled Mondays

Mondays get a bad rap. The weekend is over, back to work, back to school. As if Monday is an ending to something, when actually Mondays are a beginning. The beginning of the week, sort of a fresh sheet of paper with which to begin writing this week of your life.

I like beginnings - full of hope and promise and excitement. So I'm beginning something new on the beginning of the week, on my fresh sheet.

Hope Filled Mondays! I plan to post each Monday with something that gives me hope. I chose the title Hope Filled because it says how I strive to live my life and how I want this blog to evolve.

I think it's appropriate to begin with a definition of hope, from "The American Heritage Dictionary" published by Houghton Mifflin. I love this dictionary, which seems to weigh 10 pounds, because it gives the fullest definitions and includes famous persons and lots of pictures. I also love the speckled pages.

Anyway, the definition:

Hope is both a verb and a noun and interestingly most of the definitions refer to expectation and/or confidence in the outcome. "To wish for something with expectation of fulfillment." "To look forward to with confidence or expectation."

This is how I feel about hope. Confident and Expectant. Hope is a prayer. Hope is an asking for something and expecting the answer to be yes.

So today is the beginning of our Hope Filled Mondays and I encourage myself and you to look forward with confidence and expectation. Also, take a good look around and see the fulfillment of yesterday's hopes.