I saw the first one when I was driving home from a counseling session wiping away tears and feeling hopeless about the future.
It was a billboard on the side of the highway with an image of a person standing in a dark tunnel looking ahead at the daylight visible beyond the tunnel’s exit. The caption said, “It will get brighter.” Underneath that was the word “OPTIMISM” inside a red box and a website address: PassItOn.com.
That inspirational message gave me a glimmer of hope. It was a sign I desperately needed to see.
A week or two later I saw a different billboard with the same website on it. This one had a picture of ballet dancer (and best-selling author) Misty Copeland, with the caption, “Picture Yourself Winning.” The word inside the red box was “PERSISTENCE.”
I wondered who was paying for those billboards and what their agenda was, so I checked out the website. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the billboards were part of a larger media campaign created by a non-profit organization. As the website explains,
The Foundation for a Better Life’s goal is to offer inspirational messages to people everywhere as a contribution toward promoting universal values, good role models, and a better life. …
These uplifting messages, utilizing television, movie theaters, billboards, radio, and the internet, model the benefits of a life lived by positive values.
We believe people are basically good but sometimes just need a reminder. We also believe that the positive values we live by are worth more when we pass them on.
The website includes images of the two billboards I saw, along with many others that are equally uplifting. My personal favorite is probably the one with a picture of Shrek and the caption, “Ogre Achiever,” with “BELIEVE IN YOURSELF” in the red box.
I highly recommend clicking on some of the billboards with photos of individuals and reading the stories of what they did to merit being featured as role models.
You can also find a page full of inspirational quotes on the website, with an opportunity to receive one each weekday via email.
I see the fact that an organization like this exists, with no political or religious agenda, as another sign of hope. It does not sell anything or even accept monetary donations.
The Foundation for a Better Life also has a sister organization, The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation. That non-profit offers free resources and ideas to help “make kindness the norm” in homes, workplaces, and schools. See its website to learn more.
Please comment to let me know which billboard, story, or quote you find most inspirational and why. I’d also love to know if you’ve seen any of these signs of hope where you live.
Thank you for sharing this!
I would say the most important quote for me is " Be still and know that I am God," from the Bible. So often in the past when I have had negative thoughts, I notice they are restless thoughts, like looking at a lake that was serene and mirror- like, suddenly having a wind or storm make the waters of the lake churned up. I think and feel intuitively it helps me to have a method of Christian contemplation, or meditation, to lower my heartbeat, slow my breathing down, calm my restless thinking, and say to myself, "God is here with me." Or another way is for me to breathe in and say the word "calm", and breathe out the word ", love." If I continue that, breathing in and out slowly and saying those words, I find God finds an opening to speak directly to my heart. I can only hear him if I calm down. I think this is especially because my outer world of "busyness" can drain and disturb my attention away from what God is trying to tell me, that he loves me and accepts me.