Wednesday, November 3, 2010

The Power of the P-Word…OK, it’s a little long…just put on your big girl undies and read it!

I have a filthy mouth. No joke… I talk like a trucker and for no real reason other than it just makes me feel better sometimes. I’ve actually been able to tame my tongue at different points in life…when I went on a mission to Chile for six months….when I became a pastor’s wife and thought I probably shouldn’t be dropping F-bombs in front of our youth group. But somehow the words slowly slip their way back into my vocabulary. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago at Costco when my oldest dropped a huge *&%^%&  %*$#@) bomb that I decided to clean up my act…wondering what he said??? If you guessed the F-Word you’re wrong…it was worse and only a few choice NON-JUDGEMENTAL friends will ever know what he really said. The lady in the isle next to us gasped and looked at me with horror in her eyes. So I did what any self-respecting parent would do…I bent down and said, “Sawyer, where did you hear that??? We never say those words.” I, of course, knew darn well where he’d heard it … flying out of my mouth, twenty minutes earlier, as I tried to find a parking spot.

Anyway, back to the “P-Word” … although it’s not a naughty word … the “P-Word” is a hard one for me to digest. PERSPECTIVE. It’s funny how one word can challenge you and even change your life if you let it. 
Every morning I wake up to this amazing view:
        
It’s even more amazing in person and I praise God for ever day we get to live in our house. Now … if I turned the camera the other direction you would see a rundown, green, cinderblock house and all of the glory it’s original 1959 features offer. The toilets don’t work and there is no heat/air in the back of the house. There are spiders the size of tarantulas roaming the halls and more than once I have visited the bathroom at 2 am only to find LARGE tree frogs waiting to greet me on the toilet seat. The carpet is stained, there are holes in the walls and my floor to ceiling windows are NEVER without grimy finger prints.  Still it’s the house of my dreams and I would choose to live here even if I had millions.
Why can’t I have that kind of perspective in every part of my life? Why can’t I choose to only focus on the positive when it comes to things like my weight, finances or parenting skills?? Instead of picking myself apart in pictures…groaning about how much weight I still have to lose … why can’t I appreciate that I have dropped almost 30 pounds in the past year? Instead of complaining about all of the bills we have to pay…why can’t I choose to praise the sweet Lord that we now have a steady paycheck and don’t have to rely on food stamps like we’ve had to do in the past? Why can’t I choose learn and grow from the good decisions I make as a parent (it does happen occasionally) instead of letting the suffocating weight of guilt keep me awake at night? 
Having the right perspective could change my entire life if I would let it…it’s my choice…it’s your choice. Today I am going to take the time to find the positive in three challenging areas of my life. I am going to praise God for my struggles and ask Him to give me a new perspective on the things in life I hate but I cannot change. Do it with me … because miserly loves company… wait … I mean, because you’ll be glad you did:):)
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