One Word At A Time: Down
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 7:00AM MAD21 By Ginny (MAD21)
"D-O-W-N, down!" You say that in my house and you'll hear a big round of giggles. And for those of you who understand why without me explaining... ya, I new we'd be good friends. For those of you in the dark here, these are among some of the famous words/phrases of Candace, the big sister of Phineas and Ferb in one of the best cartoon series currently on TV. Let me take a moment to enlighten you:
Candace is always on a mission to catch her brothers during their never-ending pursuit of building the coolest inventions each episode, and get her mom to see them before the invention disappears for one reason or another. One could say she is obsessed with getting her brothers in trouble, to the point that she misses out on things going on in her own life. In one episode, she has her best friend, Stacey, hypnotize her so she doesn't even think about what her brothers are doing so that she can go have a fun day with her boyfriend, Jeremy.
Focus on what you have, not on what you don't have.
While it's a lot of fun watching Candace's antics in her never-ending pursuit to "bust her brothers," I would offer this advice for those of us in real life who may tend to also lose sight of what is important. Choose to seek out the good in people and things around you instead of dwelling on everything that is wrong.
"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." (Phillippians 4:8)
When things in our family are not going smoothly on a particular day... or for several days... or weeks, it's easy to get all wrapped up (or tangled up, or just plain bound and tossed in the closet!) in the details that may not really be all that important. If, for example, behavior and attitudes in general are lacking shall we say... sugar and spice and everything nice... we may get too focussed rules and obedience, forgetting the big picture... and the people in that picture. I don't want to push my girls so hard that they think we expect them to be perfect all the time. That's not the point at all. All things need balance... and all things need love.
Finding the bad in things is easy because there is bad in everything.
We all have people and situations in our lives that aren't the best they could be. It's easy to stay focussed on the wrong things. We have a choice every moment of our lives, in every situation. We can choose to see the good, which will bring peace, or we can choose to see the bad, and allow it to overcome our thoughts and lives. A road that is hard to get off of once you've travelled on it long enough.
So I encourage you, as I do everyone in my house: Choose joy. Choose to see the good. Learn from mistakes and leave them in the past. God only wants us to move forward, keeping our "eyes on the goal." Choose to put the bad things around us d-o-w-n, down where they belong... as nothing more than a passing thought.
This post is a participant in a blog carnival over at Peter Pollock's place.
After you finish here, be sure to go and check out what everyone else wrote on: Down.
Down, Family Life, Fun, One Word At A Time in One Word At A Time
Reader Comments (1)
The only way I can truly survive in a godly spiritual heart is to focus up instead of down. Down can wear me out quickly and can keep me from highly loving and serving my dear Father. Thank.