I have four daughters, one son, and twelve grandchildren. When we 
have get-togethers, there are twenty-four of us around the table---
all ages. A wonderful family. But our family has had some tough times. 

My wife had cancer and had a breast removed. The toughest time was 
when I was in Korea. I was ministering and I got a telephone call. 
The call was from an American and the caller said, ' Dr. Schuller, 
your daughter Carol has been in a terrible accident.' Carol was 
thirteen at that time. 

She went for a ride as a passenger on a motorcycle. Her driver went 
faster and faster. All of a sudden he hit an oncoming car, and Carol 
was thrown through the air seventy-five feet. Her left leg was hanging 
by a tendon. She was bleeding badly and screaming in pain. 

The doctor came, but couldn't give her anything for her pain. She 
endured the pain as she was rushed to the hospital. The doctor worked 
to save her life. She had blood transfusions---seventeen pints of 
blood. Now, that is getting pretty close to losing your life. The 
doctor called me in Korea and said, ' We are going to have to amputate 
her leg.' The word cut through me like a knife--- amputate! My wife 
and I caught the first flight home to America. 

On the way back, I could tell I was going to cry. I went to the toilet 
and closed the door. I started to cry out loud, and I prayed, 'Oh God, 
if there is a God, why did this have to happen?' It hurt me so badly to 
know when I got home my daughter would have only one leg. Then a thought 
went through my mind: play it down, and pray it up. I thought to myself: 
it's not so bad, she still has one leg, two arms, her face, two eyes---
she's alive! Look at what she has left, instead of what she has lost. 

Today, twelve years later, that beautiful girl is married and has two 
children. She is very happy. 

Do you know what she would say...? She would say what I said, from the 
Bible: "I have a plan for your life, a plan for good, not evil, a plan 
to give you a future with hope." 

You can choose either to be a skeptic or a believer. Birds were meant 
to fly. Flowers were meant to bloom. Humans were designed to believe 
in beauty, in love, in truth, in God. 

By Dr. Robert H. Schuller