"My story is important not because it is mine, God knows, but because if I tell it right, the chances are you will recognize that in many ways it is also yours. Maybe nothing is more important than that we keep track, you and I,of these stories of who we are and where we have come from and the people we have met along the way because it is precisely through these stories, in all their particularity,as I have long believed and often said, that God makes himself known to each of us most powerfully and personally." -Frederick Buechner



Tuesday, May 24, 2011

What do you see?

The question is "who do you see when you look into the mirror?" Someone whose nose is too big or small or whose hair is in a perpetual state of rebellion? That made me laugh out loud. I wonder if the author of the question has been following me around for life? If you've known me very long you know that my hair is plentiful and usually in a "state of rebellion". Actually I have never used those exact words but they are perfect!  That question follows on the heels of a conversation I had with a counselor friend on mine this weekend. Her question was "why does one, even small negative thing take all of our attention away from everything that is going right?"  She had been working with a couple for a long time. She stated the couple definitely love each other but just always thought things ought to be "better". There last visit with her revealed that things had gone well for two weeks but the night before coming to her there had been a "problem" and they just didn't know if they wanted to go on "living like this".  The problem was over the lawn mowing taking a little (less than 20 minutes) longer than anticipated and therefore their 5 year old (who is not in school yet) getting to bed a little later than normal. The counselor remarked that one incident washed away all of the good in the two weeks prior. How sad. Instead of focusing on the kindness of the husband to offer to put the child to bed after mowing the lawn so the wife could keep on doing something she enjoys, she only saw that it was not done exactly in her timing.

Sadly they are not alone. One crabby patient in my day can overshadow all the great people I met along the way. My "rebellious" hair can take over the fact that I have hair and lots of it. So often we miss life's beauty because we are preoccupied by it's flaws. Instead of enjoying the feel of the grass under our feet we complain that grows to fast or has a few dandelions. Our mighty, creator God looked at all He created and said it is good. (Genesis 1:31)

Let's ask God to renew our sense of wonder and gratefulness for all that He created today and see what happens. Pay attention. Expect God to show you. Share what you see.

1 comment:

  1. OOh Mom this is so true! In fact this is something that Ryan and I are both working on.

    ReplyDelete