Change Your View

Oh my goodness! God does speak to me in the oddest ways and often in the most mundane of circumstances. Yesterday afternoon, little Chloe just could not be consoled. She didn't want to be held. She didn't want to sit in her bouncy seat. She didn't want to roll on the floor. She didn't want a diaper change. She didn't want to eat. She didn't want to sit in her swing. Whoa! I mean, I was at my wits' end trying to figure out how to appease her.

She has one of those baby swings that swivels...you know, you can change the direction in which it swings. Well, I don't know why it occurred to me, but I decided to swivel it in a different direction. I opened the blinds and oh my gosh! She stopped crying. There she was with the sun streaming through the window basking her face in sunshine kisses. And, she was happy! She was as pleased as punch!

That's when I felt that familiar, gentle stirring in my heart. Sure enough, God was teaching me a lesson. Aren't we like that? We cry. We pout. We shout. Why me, Lord? You ever been there? Sometimes life is like that. Sometimes it rains. Sometimes it pours. And, we don't like it. However, what would happen if we changed our view? Instead of focusing on what's wrong in our lives, what if we focused on what is right? What if we started counting the blessings before us? What if we focused on the One, instead of number one? Yes, change the view. My problems don't seem nearly as dreary when I'm focused on the business of my Father. Hmmm, change my view? I hear you, Lord! Change my attitude when I can't change my circumstances. Change my attitude because I can't change others. Change my way of thinking because maybe the problem is my heart, not my circumstances or others. Yes, Lord, please change me!

I wonder if He chuckles when I finally get it! Yep, I'm pretty sure He's smiling.

I love you, Lord!

Rain on Me

Hope is more than a word-
it's a state of being.
It's a firm belief that
even if you don't know how,
even if you don't know when,
God will come through
and better days are ahead.
Life brings rain...
Hope dances in the puddles
until the sun comes out again.

--Holley Gerth