Thursday 28 May 2020

Check your attitude.

Do you see these two views, one is of the trash spilling out of the bin, the other is of some pretty poppies 2 meters away. Without the poppies there's not a lot of beauty in the picture, not a lot that can inspire us to hope. The bin and it's contents are in contrast with the beauty of the poppy. The poppies weren't always there, and the bin doesn't always look this bad. But if we isolate the two pictures we have an incomplete picture. The full picture is the bin and the poppies.
Does the state of the bin make you feel happy at all? To me, no, not at all. In fact the bin makes me feel unhappy, and to a certain extent unloved. The flowers though, they are a really welcome sight. They make me feel hopeful and loved, like somebody cares. If we spend all of our time looking at the bad things in life without ever seeing the good we will become despondent and hopeless. If we spend all day with our head in the poppies we will miss the opportunity to bring about the change that the flowers bring about in us. Any situation can be made prettier. Everyone has an opportunity to bring about some good. When you see some bad in life, remember how good it can be. Jesus said that it is not what goes into a person that makes them rotten, it's the way they respond that does  - specifically meaning their behaviours. How about today we go about looking for the best in every situation, encouraging the flowers to grow in our friends, neighbours, even opponents! This is the way of seeing good things happen. Check your attitude out. If you want to do just that join me Thursdays from 12:30-1:30pm with some others online in a free zoom meeting.