Monday, October 10, 2011

Look up!

I was out walking around our neighborhood the other day. I looked down as I walked and saw soggy, wet leaves; the occasional piece of trash; the cracks in the sidewalk, and the dark stains of chewing gum, discarded long ago. Then I looked up. I saw the beauty of a blue October sky; the autumn trees tipped with gold as the sunlight bounced off them; birds flying high on the wing, and delicate leaves dancing in the breeze. What a contrast!
As we minister to our children, we have a daily choice. We can focus on the cracks, or focus on the creativity. We can look at the trash, or look at the treasure.  We can be aware of the stains, or be aware of the solutions. In other words, we can choose to look down and focus on our problems, or we can choose to look up and focus on our possibilities. I know which one I will try to choose this week...do you?
Read about being transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Question: What effective way have you found of turning negative thoughts or situations into positive ones?
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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 10, 2011 at 1:45 PM

    I like your thinking here. It reminded me of what C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity: "We see only the results which a man's choices make out of his raw material. But God does not judge him on the raw material at all, but on what he has done with it. Most of the man's psychological make-up is probably due to his body: when his body dies all that will fall off him, and the real central man, the thing that chose, that made the best or worst of this material, will stand naked. All sorts of nice things which we thought our own, but which were really due to good digestion, will fall off some of us: all sorts of nasty things which were due to complexes or bad health will fall off others. We shall then, for the first time, see every one as he really was. There will be surprises."

    God uses a different standard for judging that the outward appearances or actions. We get so hung up on "the trash" as you say that we can miss the really amazing work God is doing inside a child's heart. To answer your question: I pray that God gives me his eyes to see people the way he does.

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  2. DomOctober 10, 2011 at 4:47 PM

    I love this Glenys! :)

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  3. Glenys NellistOctober 10, 2011 at 5:21 PM

    Thank you Dom! I LOVE it that you are reading my posts & even more that you are commenting!!!!

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  4. Glenys NellistOctober 10, 2011 at 5:28 PM

    Matt- thanks for the quote from CS Lewis. I have not come across that before. And that's a really great prayer of yours....I must remember that, reminds me of Brandon Heath's 'Give Me Your Eyes.'

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  5. Jenifer HarrodOctober 21, 2011 at 8:59 PM

    Hi Glenys I enjoyed reading this post. You are so right about focusing on the right things. Here is my other son Zach the lodest of seven's blog. He could use an encouraging comment too.
    www.storieswithzach.blogspot.com

    Thanks so much for helping. You are an inspiration.

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  6. Glenys NellistOctober 22, 2011 at 4:09 PM

    Thanks for your kind words Jenifer....I will definitely encourage your boys!

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