The Key to Living the Charmed Life

Written by Jeanette Flake

Have you ever noticed that some people seem to live a charmed life?  No matter what is happening in the world around them, they seem to be immune to all the world's ills.  They attract positivity wherever they go.  People smile at them and talk to them, and they never seem to be suffering for friends or good things.  Know anyone like this?  I do, and I've spent time observing them, searching for the key to having a charmed life like theirs.

I want to tell you what I found.  To do that, let me tell you about a day I had that was anything BUT charmed.  In fact, I would say it might even be called the exact OPPOSITE of the charmed life.

On this day, I woke up late because of sinus problems that had kept me up late the night before.  By the time I got up, my two youngest kids had taken it upon themselves to get cold cereal for breakfast.  The table was a mess.  Although the meal went off without a spill or major catastrophe, my youngest asked for a snack approximately two whole seconds after he had finished his breakfast.  I think it's a pretty safe bet that he didn't have enough to eat.  That's what happens when they get their own food.

Later when we left to run errands, the wind was blowing like there was no tomorrow.  The amount of dust in the air from the wind made it look like there was smog even though we live hours away from the nearest cities and our air quality without the dust is usually pretty good.  All this dust was wreaking havoc with my sinuses, and my nose was running like crazy.  When I opened the door to get out of the car at the store, the wind flung the door wide open, and I could barely get it shut again because the gusts were so strong.  This was no charmed life day for me.

Now, I want to tell you about another day that was very different and illustrates perfectly the key to living a charmed life.

On this day, my kids were already awake when I got up, and they said good morning to me first thing.  It was a great start to my day.  To top it off, I was able to read scriptures uninterrupted for a half hour before starting my routine, which is something of a rarity for me.  It was a spring morning, and as I drove to the store to run some errands, I noticed the buds were just opening on most of the trees.  Even in the store parking lot, the trees were blooming.

As I walked into the store, I was greeted immediately by a couple of friends from church.  They also said hello to my two younger kids who were with me and complimented my youngest on how tall he was getting.  He smiled and stood on his tiptoes to show his amazing height.  It was cute and funny, and we all laughed.  Before I even got to the next aisle of the store, I saw another friend who said hello and asked how I was doing.  I felt happy and loved.  It was the very essence of the charmed life.

As you may or may not have guessed, these two very different days are actually descriptions of the very same day from opposite perspectives.  That brings me to my point: the charmed life isn't something that happens by chance.  It comes about when we see the beauty in our life despite the less-happy things that are inevitably also there.

Someone once said that attitude determines altitude.  This saying is very true.  So is this one: "Attitude is everything, so pick a good one."

God didn’t design us to be sad. 

He created us to have joy!

"God didn’t design us to be sad. He created us to have joy! So if we trust Him, He will help us to notice the good, bright, hopeful things of life. And sure enough, the world will become brighter," said Dieter F Uchtdorf.  Isn't that just so true?

The charmed life is something we create through our attitude.  Not only does it become a self-fulfilling prophecy by the greater amount of good we notice, but it actually changes the way other people respond to us.  People are much more likely to smile at someone who first smiles at them.  People will treat us differently as our attitude improves.  It won't happen immediately, but as sure as spring follows winter, it WILL happen.

So let's quit waiting for the charmed life to sneak up behind up us, and let's start building it day by day, week by week, and year by year.  The charmed life is possible, but it's up to us to put the charm in our own lives.  That is the key to living a charmed life.