“Brothers and sisters, think about the things that are good and worthy of praise. Think about the things that are true and honorable and right and pure and beautiful and respected and the God who gives peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:8, 9b
I read a story about two bed-ridden men in a hospital room. Frank, a cheerful, positive man was in the bed by the window. Charles, who always saw the dark side of life, was on the other side of the room. The cheerful man would tell Charles about the birds he saw, the beautiful cloud formations and the clean white snow in winter. Frank painted such a beautiful picture that when he died, the gloomy man asked to be moved to the ‘window’ bed.
He was in for a surprise. When he was moved to the bed by the window, he discovered that all he could see was an outside hospital wall. Frank had used his imagination to see the beauty of life even though he was bed-ridden.
What do we see?
Our property has a beautiful landscaped back yard: a pond, a stream, large and small interesting trees, flowering shrubs, bird houses, several types of birds, green lawn and a cedar hedge surrounding our lot. We are surrounded by beauty.
Yet, for some reason, when I look out of our bedroom window each morning, my eyes tend to go straight to our neighbors dirty old shed. Why? When there is so much beauty, why do my eyes go to the ugly?
I don’t know why my eyes tend to see the ugly first, but I do know I can choose to turn my eyes from the ugly to the beautiful. I can choose to think about the good, kind things. I can choose to count my blessings rather than complain.
What do you see? What are you thinking about? You have a choice.
Father, thank you for the ability to choose what we think and what we see. Cause us to think about the beauty You have surrounded us with – even if it has to be only in our imagination. Amen.