“Never doubt in the darkness what is revealed to you in the light.”
Those words of wisdom were spoken to me many years ago, when my first husband lay in a hospital bed, dying of a brain tumor. Believe me, sitting by your husband’s bedside for 17 months while he suffers from pressure on the brain, and strange hallucinations and other side effects from the drugs he had to take, gives plenty of opportunity for doubt and fear to creep in.
Bob and I were married in June ’76. Almost right away we knew something was wrong, but examinations by two different doctors, six months apart, seemed to indicate there was nothing wrong. A third doctor, in a small lumbering community in northern Ontario, proved the city doctors wrong. We began the long trek back to Sudbury, and then to Toronto, where he could undergo extensive testing and subsequent surgery.
Thus began Bob’s long journey on the road — not to recovery, as they thought at first — to an untimely death at the age of 30, leaving me a widow at age 25. Of course there were many days when the sun shone brightly and we thought he would be able to come home. But by the time I was comfortably situated in an apartment customized for someone in a wheelchair, we knew he would never be coming home.
There were those who sincerely believed it was MY “lack of faith” that prevented Bob from getting well. Evidently I was doubting God! It was not enough to believe He could heal Bob. I was supposed to demand that He would. And indeed sometimes it seems that Napoleon Hill himself would have accused me of speaking my reality into existence and thus “causing” Bob’s death.
God’s ways are not our ways, and I had perfect faith and trust that He would do what was best for all concerned… and would give us grace and peace for whatever His way might be. And He did!!
I also had perfect faith that when God closes a door He opens another, better one. He closed the door on my marriage to Bob, on July 12, 1978. And He opened the door for me to attend college in Alberta less than two months later… where I met Ian during my senior year.
Ian and I were married in February ’82, and we were blessed with seven children. Despite many difficulties along the way, our marriage continues to grow in strength and in love.
So what does all this have to do with network marketing? Simple…
“There are good years and there are bad years. And if you quit on a bad year, you never get to the good years!”
THOSE words of wisdom were spoken to me by one of my awesome mentors this morning… and I just had to share them with you, by way of that important lesson I learned as a young woman.
Network marketing is not a fast ticket to wealth. It is primarily a relationship building process, out of which will grow some great business relationships. There WILL be down times, just as surely as there are in life in general. Stay on track, keep building, maintain a positive attitude, say your self talk and continue with that all important personal development. Things WILL improve after a time, and you will find yourself basking in the sunlight of the good years.
© Willena Flewelling
Success in 10 Steps
Phone 780-349-7163
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Willena, that is a inspiring lesson to go along with your personal life experience. I can just imagine all the emotional and spiritual struggles you encountered during that time in your life. That’s a lot for a young girl to shoulder, but it has helped shape you into the beautiful person that you are today!
Blessings to you!
Lynn
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Willena,
Great message!! I love when you say “There are good years and there are bad years but if we quit during the bad years we can never enjoy the good years to come.” It really puts it all into perspective. That like when you play the “what if” game, what if I married…. or what if this didn’t happen to me… We wouldn’t be the people we are today and had the experiences that got us to this point if it didn’t happen. I truly believe everything happens for a reason.
God Bless,
Trish
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Willena,
You are a strong person to have gone through that experience and come out on the other side being able to see that there are still good years to be experienced. It is so true though, if we let the “bad years” take over our outlook on our life or business, then we won’t even notice or be able to experience the sunny days and “good years” .
Thanks so much for sharing,
~ Pat and Lorna
http://TheCoolestCouple.com
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Willena – You sure do have a story to tell! This is such a great analogy to life in general – and especially network marketing. The important thing is you never gave up and now you have a big beautiful family because of your strength! Thank you for sharing this story with us!
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Willena, thank you for sharing your life lesson with all of us. I have always believed that even the negatives have a positive side. As a matter of fact, I have helped a friend who suffers from depression for many years. And she knows that I always challenge her to find 5 positives for every negative she comes up with. It does work amazingly well. Those positives maybe long term outlooks, but they are there. You just have to open your eyes to them. Sounds like you do this naturally and it obviously has made you a stronger person.
I am happy for you that you find your place after such a horrific experience.
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Hi Willena,
That must have been such a hard time for you. I can’t even imagine… For what ever reason you were meant to experience that with your husband. There is a lesson in everything. I remember when my parents died and how alone I felt, but it made me stronger because I had to depend on myself. That’s all we really have … it looks like you have survived this sadness in your life well. Thank you for sharing your story.. you are an inspiration.
Lesly Federici recently posted..If You Train Yourself
Quitting is certainly not an option for the network marketing professional. Sometimes, a change is necessary, however, you are dead on when you say that there are good days and bad. Success comes from sticking things through!
Eddie Espiritu recently posted..Another Network Marketing Success Story
Hi Willena,
Thank you so much for sharing yours and Bob’s story, and for showing us a piece of God’s reality so eloquently.
I will take this message of sticking to it, even through the hard years with me as I go out and help anyone and everyone who asks.
Take Care,
David H. Paul
the Follow Your Bliss guy
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Willena, thank you for sharing a piece of who you are. It touched my heart.
Faith is moving forward even when you feel the lowest of lows.
You are an example of faith. There is nothing you can do to make God love you more and nothing you can do to make God love you less. I am happy to hear how blessed your life has been after the passing of your 1st husband.
Life is a series of peaks and valleys and as long as we know it’s part of the process than it makes the valleys a little more bearable knowing that it will get better no matter how bad it gets.
Faith and hope are intertwined. Business is very similar and in Think and Grow Rich most of the highly successful got their riches just one step further after defeat had overtaken their mind.
I’m grateful to have read your post. Thank you.
God bless,
Eiji
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Willena,
Love this, really impressed that you shared your story and it is so very true about the good days and bad days. The most important thing is to celebrate the good, learn from the bad and keep moving forward.
Lori
Willena
Thanks for sharing your story, I love your courage and your faith. It is great to hear inspiring stories and have a positive outcome. Sometimes it is hard to see the positive side when you are in the depths of what seems like a negative situation. I am always asking myself what am I meant to be learning from my perceived negative situation as I believe we are given challenges to learn and move onto the next one.
Belinda
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Hi Willena
Thank you for sharing this blog with us. I appreciate it.
Judy Cook
Beautiful story of faith & endurance. This is a great testimony as in life, network marketing has it’s ups & downs. As you eloquently stated, your faith help you endure to better times. You are such an inspiration & thanks for sharing your story.
What a tragic story to tell. But I’m glad that you were able to pick up the pieces and move on with your life. Some people might think that our beliefs sometimes has something to do with a person’s life or death when in a situation such as that. But I feel that it is completely out of our hands. Sometimes I don’t know what to believe. But like you said when one door closes another one seems to open to having a better opportunity. You have to look forward no matter how bad things may hurt. And focus on the better days to a better year.
Steven Dean
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@Steven Dean, Steven, I do know with a calm certainty deep in my heart, that another person’s death has nothing to do with my beliefs or self talk. That certainty didn’t come easily, but once it was there, it had a stabilizing effect during an otherwise turbulent time of my life.
That same certainty was a big help 13 months ago when we lost our oldest son in a highway accident. James was 25, and full of life. No one ever expected he would be gone from our lives so soon. But God knew… and He makes no mistakes. We miss James a lot, but God has blessed our family in ways we never could have imagined, in this past year.
Willena
@Willena Flewelling, As if things couldn’t get much worse. That’s Awful Willena. And yet you still stand strong to this very day. Not an easy thing to witness. I don’t wish anyone to face death whether its the parents that pass away first or the children in the family. Life can be cruel sometimes. But I suppose sometimes we are pitted against own self of how we can handle the factors in life. Sometimes I feel that we are put on this Earth to learn life’s valuable lessons at different stand points in life.
Steven Dean
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Hi Willena
Thank you for being so candid, open and truly vulnerable as to share this very real account of your life with everyone. I am so sorry for your loss and what you had to go through. I sound like you were strengthened greatly. I like the way you tied it back to your career, and what you do each day to deal with daily challenges. The message to me was that if you can handle that, you can handle most anything gracefully, powerfully, and do anything well!! You are a strong lady. My mom always says “God would not bring me this far, to drop me now!”
Laura & Larry Morris
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Willena, you never failed to inspire me. Lesson learned is to never give up and have faith. Giving up is never an option. Strive hard and remember that whatever hard times you’re facing, there will be good things that will happen from those bad times. Thanks for sharing!