Perspective

There have been quite a few things in the last six months that have tested my faith.

Gee, you thought life was all Disney and roses around here didn’t you?

Well for the most part it is.

And I do not have any right to whine or complain about a single solitary thing. My life is blessed. But with those blessings comes the tests. The last few have been considerably hard to take. Really making me sit back and wonder what the plan is in all of this. Then I saw this quote this morning.

Every
experience God gives us, every person He puts into our lives, is the perfect
preparation for a future only He can see.

-Corrie ten Boom

And I saw these lovelies coming up in the garden – courtesy of the birds.

And once again – I am reminded that life, first of all , can be full of sweet little surprises is you keep yours eyes open for them. I nearly pulled these all out a few weeks ago thinking they were weeds.

And, two, life really is just a matter of perspective. I believe I have titled a few other blog posts, here, and here, oh yeah and this one with the same theme. So, even I need the reminder again and again.

Sunflowers, can not think, are not capable of decision making, and yet, they instinctively turn their faces toward the sun. Again, as is usually the case, something in nature reminds me to pause, and causes me some reflection.

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.   ~~  Proverb, Maori

We are capable of willful decision making. Yet, often times is the case, we CHOOSE to turn away from the sun. We allow the negative thought to guide our actions, when we need to be more like the sunflower, and perhaps CHOOSE to turn our faces to the sun instead of away from it.

I can not wait to see these lovelies start to open.

A bend in the road is not the end of the road... unless you fail to make the turn.  ~Author Unknown

I like to think I wholly believe that God has a plan for my life and everyone I love, but there are times I wonder if I believe that as much as I say. The doubt creeps in, after weeks like these past few. But all it takes, is a moment of honest reflection to be reminded that it is all a matter of my own perspective. The bends in the road are going to be there. How I chose to approach them is entirely up to me.

If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem.  Everything else is inconvenience.

~Robert Fulghum

God’s plan is all too often, vastly differing from my own plans.

I have been accused before of being a bit too much of a pollyanna – always looking for the positive in things. In fact, just the other day, the four of us were discussing something, and everyone else was pointing out this fault or that fault with the situation, and I just offered a differing angle on the situation. K says to me, Mom, do you always have something nice to say about everything?

Well – honestly, no. But, I guess years and years of facing their difficulties in school, and finding positive things to encourage them. And, situation after situation in my life, requiring a more “positive spin” on things, or I could sink into a deep despair, I guess I like to think I have trained myself to “look on the bright side” shall we say. 

Plus – honestly – other than making us feel miserable, what purpose does wallowing serve? Has anything ever been accomplished with pessimism? where would all be if the great leaders of history simply threw their hands in the air, and gave up, simply because maybe things didn’t go their way the first time?

So, if Pollyanna fits. So be it. But I choose to turn my face to the sun.