My Can-Do Attitude

by Donna Poole

“In this family we don’t say ‘can’t!’”

We Piarulli kids heard Mom say that one or a thousand times. Mom was born in March, the lion-lamb month, and she could roar like a lion when the occasion warranted. She didn’t like quitters!

Mom absolutely believed I could do anything if I made up my mind to do it and tried hard enough. Perhaps I should reword that. Mom believed I could do anything if I trusted God and tried hard enough.

Mom was an avid reader; I don’t know, but perhaps she read about Oliver Cromwell and adopted his can-do attitude. You’ve probably heard the old saying, “Trust God and keep your powder dry.” When England invaded Ireland in 1649, Cromwell said to his soldiers, “Put your trust in God, my boys, but keep your powder dry.”

Wet gun powder was useless in battle. The saying has come to mean, “Trust God, but do your part!” Proverbs 21:31 combines the same two ideas: “The horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safety is of the LORD.”

Mom was a huge proponent of faith. But had I dared tell her I hadn’t studied my spelling words for a test but had instead prayed and trusted God, she would have knocked me into the middle of next week. (Mom sometimes threatened to do just that, and being a curious child, I often wondered if the middle of next week might be more fun than present circumstances.)

Mom taught us well. We Piarulli girls don’t give up easily. Some might say we share a streak of stubbornness a mile wide, but I prefer to call it our can-do attitude. I’ve seen all my sisters face adversity with a daunting combination of determination and faith.

And I suppose we sisters can all be a bit stubborn about everything, the others more than I. Funny, something just made me choke.

But can even the stubborn Piarulli girls really do anything we make up our minds to do?

Let me tell you about my piano lessons. There was a time, back in the day, when we needed a piano player at church. Every other pastor’s wife I knew could play the piano, so God must want me to learn, right? I tackled those lessons with determination, enthusiasm, faith, and prayer. No matter how busy I was or how I felt, I practiced the piano. If the teacher said practice thirty minutes five days a week, I practiced forty-five minutes to an hour seven days a week.

I took to the piano like the proverbial fish takes to water; it was glorious. My concentration was borderline obsessive.

Once, when I was practicing, John said, “I’m going to town now, honey. Love you.”

I intended to say, “Okay, honey, love you too.” Instead, as I kept staring at my music and playing, I said, “Okay, 2,3,4.”

John still laughs when he remembers how I called him “2,3,4.”

I took to the piano, but the piano did not take to me. I think it actually hated me. My first piano teacher is now in glory, and no, I didn’t drive her to an early grave, but my second teacher is still alive. You can ask Lois Pettit how hard I tried and how miserably I failed at learning to play the piano. After three years I finally… I, gulp, can barely write the word—sorry, Mom—I QUIT!

Some things take more than determination. I admire the tiny snowdrops that push up through last years leaves and this year’s melting snow to announce spring is coming even here to Michigan where March is at her lion-lamb best. To me snowdrops are a metaphor for a can-do attitude. But are they really? They don’t do their work alone. They push up through our heavy clay soil because of sunshine and God’s grace.  

So many things require grace. My best efforts won’t get me to heaven. I can’t get to heaven by doing good deeds or being a good person. Sorry, but neither can you. God says all our self-made righteousness is like a filthy rag. –Isaiah 64:6

True, we might be better people than a serial killer, but here’s the thing. Trying to get to heaven by a can-do attitude is like trying to jump the Atlantic. You can jump farther than I because I’ve been unable to jump since brain surgery nine years ago. Tajay Gayle can jump farther than you. He holds the record for the long jump. On September 28, 2019, he won the World Championship in Doha, Qatar, with a jump of 28 feet 6 inches. That’s impressive!

But even a Tajay Gayle jump won’t get you far if your goal is to jump across the ocean.

I can’t get to heaven by being good and thank God I don’t have to. I’d be really tired of even trying by now. Jesus, God’s Son, lived the perfect life I can’t, died on the cross for my sin, and rose again. All that’s left for me to do is accept God’s grace freely offered.  

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” –Ephesians 2:8-9

Do my sisters and I still have our can-do attitudes? That attitude got me into a lot of trouble when I was a kid. Once Mom said we could ride our bikes for fifteen minutes before supper. I convinced Mary we could ride fifteen miles to a store and be back in fifteen minutes. It didn’t end well. No grace was extended.

I remember a sister who shall remain unnamed who determined with her can-do attitude she could eat a dozen potato pies, each one half the size of a dinner plate. She did it. Her name wasn’t Mary. Her name wasn’t Eve either.

Perhaps we sisters have learned to temper our can-do attitudes with a bit of common sense. The last time we were together we ordered take-out from Little Venice, our favorite Italian restaurant. We ate. And we ate. And we ate. Then someone said the “can’t” word. None of us finished our meals.  

When it comes to life, though, we may be old, battle-scarred soldiers, but I think Mom would be happy. One sister finished her fight and is in heaven, but the three of us who remain are still trusting God and keeping our powder dry.