Changing My Attitude

I do a daily journal with RJ as a part of his homeschooling and we talk about times he felt panicked and what was his favorite and least favorite thing from the day before.  Last week, within a four day period, something that had been his least favorite turned into his favorite.  We looked back through his journal and talked about how things had changed in those four days then he looked at me and said “mom, I just had to change my attitude about it.”  Wow.  So much wisdom rolling around in that little mind.  I just love when God uses my kids to teach me (ok sometimes I love it and sometimes it drives me nuts ;) )

This got me thinking about a lot of things.  There has been so much to be thankful for lately but also a lot of very difficult things.  I have to consciously choose to look at the good because the negative somehow just makes itself apparent without effort.

We moved into our rental house this week and we are packing up our old house.  As you can imagine there are a lot of thoughts and feelings that go along with it.  We’re so thankful for the sale because we couldn’t afford it anymore with being in full time missionaries.  But it’s also very hard as we say good bye to the only home that most of our kids ever remember and the only home Laila ever lived in with us.

Packing, purging and sorting our things is also an emotional process.  This isn’t just moving from one house to another.  It’s truly deciding which things are so important that they may stay in storage for years and which things are also so important that they will be packed up in a crate, logged on a spreadsheet for customs and shipped sea freight all the way across the world.  This is a hard process but also a good one, as it is so freeing to have much less as far as possessions.  See, good and tough.  Just have to choose my attitude.

Relationships are also being refined already.  Who is going to make the cut by reaching out and keeping in contact and who isn’t.  We’re not angry about it, it’s just a part of the process but it doesn’t mean it isn’t sad.  But I can also see where God puts people in your life for a season and that’s ok.

So I will leave you today with this picture.  As I kept thinking about attitude and perspective I kept thinking about a time the kids kept trying to find something that they could stump me to make a devotion out of.  They said “I bet you can’t make a devotion out of that pile of dirt!”  I told them we can choose to look at dirt as gross and making everything unclean but we can also see it as life giving and fun.  Good dirt can produce great crops to provide us with food.  Or maybe that dirt can be used to make muds pies that would bring a young child hours of fun and pretend.

I pray and challenge you (and myself) to take the things in our life today that seem like they are all messed up and ask God to give you His eyes to see them as beautiful.

I’d love to join you in prayer over something you may need God’s help to see perspective in today.  Send me a private message if you’d like to chat or simply leave an emoji comment and I will add you to my prayer list.