Category: Choosing to See the Bright Side

Last weekend, my sixteen-year-old, attended a high school basketball game. It was at the opposing team’s school. Thanks to a Georgia law prohibiting teen drivers from transporting any passengers who are unrelated to them for the first six months of having their license, she had to drive alone.

Getting to the game was not a problem. She followed some friends. But, after the game, they headed their separate ways. She ended up making a wrong turn and found herself lost and alone in the dark.

Thankfully, she didn’t panic. She grabbed her cell phone and called her mama. She was frustrated, but not afraid, as she told me the road she was on and the street signs she was passing. Quite honestly, I could totally relate. I rarely travel on that side of our rural county and I’ve been turned around on those roads too.

I directed her the best way I knew how, and I thought we were home free. But, then she announced their was a giant detour sign and she had to turn around. At that point, she started to panic just a little. I reassured her that everything would be fine. If she would simply follow the signs, she would end up back on the right track.

She complained mightily that they were working on the road at night. “Why would they work on the road at night?” she grumbled.

I explained to her that the least amount of traffic was on the road at that time. That made sense to her. And then, just like that, she came to a place where the road was familiar. She knew where she was and we hung up. She arrived home safely very soon after.

I thought about our conversation throughout the weekend. I thought about how easy it is to get lost and turned around along life’s journey. I thought about how easily my own child was comforted by my voice and instructions. I thought about how easily we can be comforted by God’s voice and instructions when we get lost or detoured, if we have the wisdom to reach out to Him.

We can’t pick up the cell phone and call Him, but we can go to Him in prayer and just like I was able to calm my own child, He is more than willing to calm and comfort us. We are after all, His children.

One thing is sure, we will get turned around from time to time, and there will definitely be detours, whether we like it or not. Life is rarely a straight shot from earth to Heaven. The question for us, is how do we respond?

We can certainly panic and make circles in the dark. We can complain about how unfair and inconvenient the detours are. We can stay lost, frustrated, and frightened indefinitely, or we can bow our heads, get on our knees and reach out for guidance. We can listen for His voice.

If we are still and patient, we will get directions and answers because God will never abandon His children. Eventually, we may even learn that the detours are actually blessings and were part of His plan all along. Perhaps, the key is learning to listen.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

 

I recently read a post on incourageme.com, by Jennifer Schmidt, where she said she substituted the phrase, “I get to,” instead of “I have to,” in her daily activities. She suggested that the readers try the same.

I was intrigued by her suggestion and I wondered if simply replacing one word with another, could make a big difference. I have to, means I am required. It has nothing to do with what I might want. I get to, is more like a privilege or a reward.

We are living in a season where we are supposed to be thankful, so I gave it a try. For three days, whatever the task was, from cooking dinner, to scrubbing toilets, to picking up dry cleaning, I repeated the mantra, “I get to.”

My sunny outlook has been a tad gray lately, but the one word change, made all of the difference.

When I got to, instead of had to, scrub my toilets, I had to acknowledge that I’m thankful for having clean running water. A substantial amount of the world’s population doesn’t. That simple acknowledgement also led to be thankful for my home, and for the fact that we have more than one toilet, and that I had the physical ability to clean it. Not all people have arms and legs. My list of what I was thankful for just kept growing.

I was really enjoying my experiment and the subtle heart shift I could feel.

When I got to pick my son up from band practice. I had acknowledge that I’m thankful that I have a car that runs and that I can afford gas to put in it. That led me to being thankful that my son is involved in a productive after school activity that he enjoys. Most importantly, it made me acknowledge how grateful I am to have a child who is alive and healthy, even if he wasn’t particularly thankful for the ride.

When I changed my inner dialogue, my outlook wasn’t dependent in any way on how others reacted to what I was doing. Whether or not the members in my family appreciated my service or not, I was changed because my focus was changed.

The Bible tells us, “in all circumstances give thanks.” That can be a truly tall order and on some days, nearly impossible. But, there are things we can do to change how we view our lives and circumstances. When we choose to actively give thanks for all we have given, on a regular basis, not just on holidays, our view changes, not only our view of our own lives, but also our view of God.

Having a thankful heart, leaves us wide open to receiving all kinds of blessings and it allows us to bless others. Take this weekend and give the, “I get to,” challenge a shot. I think you will be impressed with what you see. You might even decide to make it permanent. I did.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

 

 

 

 

On the very first play of the Georgia versus Tennessee football game, Georgia’s star running back, Nick Chubb, suffered a serious injury to his left leg. When I say serious, I mean I saw the up close replay several times, thanks to CBS, and I was just sick for him. I mean, I seriously thought his bone would come through the skin. It was horrible to watch.

He was obviously in excruciating pain, which CBS was all too happy to capture from every angle, but the network also captured something else. Almost every time the camera zoomed back in on the injured player, there was someone else from the team, praying with him. There were coaches, trainers as well as his teammates, bowing their heads to pray for him.

It was truly inspirational to see. This is SEC college football. It’s a rough sport. These kids playing are giants with big NFL plans in many of their futures and they had a full four quarters to play, yet they took the time to pray with their teammate.

The trainers and medical staff could have focused solely on his physical injuries. They were certainly severe. But, they too, seemed to have understood at the moment, that the spiritual was just as important.

Of equal interest were the prayers that appeared on Twitter. Almost as soon as Chubb went down, the Twitterverse got busy with prayers. Todd Gurley, a former UGA player and current NFL player, who tore his ACL in college, tweeted that he was praying for Chubb and his tweet was retweeted 7,957 times.

I find it interesting that parents have lamented for years about the poor role models that sports figures play for kids. I haven’t seen too much attention given to NFL players praying, unless it was to ridicule Tim Tebow as much as possible, for his strong faith.

There were Tweeted prayers from Aaron Murray, Marcus Lattimore, Tim Tebow, and Carl Lawson to name a few. A couple of those guys had knee injuries in college too and went on to do great things. Each young man allowed God to use him to publicly reach out to a fellow athlete, a fellow Christian.

Early Sunday evening, Chubb’s mother posted a heartfelt prayer and thanks of her own. “I thank God for being an awesome God and what an awesome God he is;” she began. She went on to say he had torn three ligaments, (not the dreaded ACL,), and would have surgery in a couple of weeks. She thanked everyone for their prayers. Then she said, “I do not doubt God or his plans…. We are going to increase our time with God and continue watching him work. Stay tuned….”

I guess we now know why Nick Chubb is said by all who meet him, to be a remarkable young man. His mama has clearly taught him to love the Lord.

You can Google the video and watch the injury play. While he is out for the season, he will be up and running again sooner than later. It could have been so much worse. Do prayers work? I suspect Chubb and his mama both, would say a resounding, “yes.” I’m sure they would also appreciate it if we would continue to pray for Nick.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Yesterday was the first time this school year that I have been in a school car rider line. My daughter started driving this year, so I have been relieved of my afternoon driving duties. But, yesterday she had something to do after school, so I had to go pick up my son.

It was a gorgeous fall day. It has rained here for the past couple of weeks. The day before was pretty too, but I worked that day, so I was indoors. Yesterday, I found myself cleaning house all day, so I was again indoors all day, until pick up time.

I’ll have to admit that I found myself slightly annoyed at having to go back to the car rider line. I spent an hour a day for eleven years, waiting for my kids to get out of school. Not being in that line has added a couple of hours to my day to get things done before my teens get home from school.

But, when I got in the car, the brilliant blue cloudless sky, was almost breathtaking. I don’t take time to notice the sky when it’s sunny everyday. But, after two weeks of rain? I found it stunning. I found myself giving a prayer of thanks for that beautiful sky.

I was reminded that our lives are full of everyday blessings like that sky, that we often take for granted until something unfortunate happens. We are blessed with health, and family, and friends, and plenty to eat, and pets that make us smile, houses to live in, people who love us and, well, if you took the time to make a list, you would probably run out of paper.

Sadly, we sometimes forget all of those ordinary blessings are in fact, blessings. We take them for granted. We focus on what we don’t have or what we want and not all of the bounty that we have, until the storms hit.

When the rains come and we scramble for peace and refuge, we remember. We remember what is really important and what truthfully, doesn’t matter at all. We gain new perspective for all we have.

And when the rains pass, and they always will, eventually, if we are wise, we give thanks to the One who not only helped us weather the storm, but has given us so much to be thankful for.

Yesterday, I found myself incredibly thankful for the sky and that I had a healthy child to pick up from school. I’ll bet you can think of at least couple of things you are thankful for too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

We have had a lot of rain lately. As is often the case with humanity, we pray for rain because it’s just too dry and then we complain because it’s so wet. We are rarely content for very long. That’s just our nature. After long periods of rain, we often have mushrooms pop up.

I never really gave them much thought. As a kid, I would run through the yard and kick them over or destroy them with a stick. My mama told me they were poisonous, so I didn’t dare touch them.

But, as an adult, I am in awe of just one more example of God’s artistry. As I went to the mailbox the other day, these orange ones caught my eye and I just had a snap some photos. I always find it fascinating that man can toil endlessly to try to get certain things to grow in areas where things don’t grow well.

We amend the soil and add all types of fertilizer and nutrients. People have been known to spend thousands of dollars for that perfect green lawn. We sometimes succeed in getting what we consider to be the picture perfect yard.

But, often times, we fail. Often after battling weather, pests, and things like soil ph, we just give up. After great sacrifice and heartbreak, we sometimes come to accept that we can’t achieve perfection, or what we perceive to be perfection. Sometimes we just decide to let it go, and when we do, sometimes beautiful things can happen.

I couldn’t plant a mushroom and make it grow, even if I wanted to. Sure, there are commercial growers of the edible ones, but the ones in my yard are just beautiful. They make me smile at God’s creativity. He could have just made plain boring ones, but he made them look like a work of art.

They remind me of how creative our Creator is. They remind me that if we are created in His image, that we too, are called to be creative in some unique way. They remind me that in our quest for perfection and our deep desire to fit in, that we often turn away from our creative side.

But, feeding that creative side, whatever it is, feeds us spiritually and helps us become what we are called to be.

The pretty, vibrant little mushrooms also remind me that we can never achieve all that we are capable of on our own. It’s when we willingly admit to God that we can’t do life well without Him, and call out for His guidance and help, that we get to experience all of the wonder that He has for us.

We just have to be willing to trade our will for His wonder. The results are often spectacular.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

We have a lot of hardwood trees in our yard, front and back. Whenever a strong thunderstorm blows through, my family spends a fair amount of time picking up dead limbs. It can be an annoying task when it’s hot outside and I’m concerned about snakes lurking around the limbs. But, it’s the price we pay for all of our fabulous trees. We love the trees, so we deal with the sticks and limbs.

The last time I was picking up limbs, I really studied some of them. Many had a fungus on them. They were already dead. The tree no longer needed them for nourishment. They weren’t doing anything to support the tree. They were simply dead weight. They needed to be removed. Isn’t it interesting how nature works that way? Nature has a way of removing what is no longer needed.

As I was thinking about those limbs, I began to think about what happens in our own lives when strong storms blow through. We too, have a way of shedding excess baggage, like those tree limbs.

Think about it. When adversity strikes, things like cancer, job loss or relationship issues, the things that matter come into sharper focus. The things that don’t, drop away.

Sometimes those storms give us a huge wake up call. How many of the things that have we have agreed to help with or be involved with actually take time away from our families? How many things that we agree to be a part of, take time away from our relationship with God? Do we feel the need to be in constant motion to be valuable? Do we make time to feed our emotional and spiritual selves?

If financial storms blow through, we might realize that we didn’t actually need three hundred cable channels in HD. We might find that meals at home with our families are quite fulfilling. We might find that we have closets full of clothes already and that shopping is a unnecessary expense.

We all carry around unnecessary baggage, things that keep us extraordinarily busy and distracted for no truly good reason. That’s our nature. That’s the nature of the society we live in.

But, when a storm blows through, and one eventually will, we are often able to drop a lot of the extra stuff that we didn’t need in the first place. When the storm eventually passes, and it will, we will find ourselves lighter and able to embrace the people and things that truly matter.

The challenge is to not pick it all back up when the skies are blue again. The challenge is to ask God for guidance and leave ourselves some room to breathe and just be. We can’t hear God when we are never still. When we clear out some of that baggage we can be still.

When we become God focused, and the next storm blows through, the clean up is minimal because we are ready. Do you need to do any trimming today?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂