Life ‘s beautiful when you learn to see the good in everything instead of seeing the flaws. ~Jr. Ronaldo
How we see things is often influenced by our perspective or attitude. Someone once saw the thistle bloom and thought it lovely enough to plant in their garden. The seeds flew out and landed on new fields where it had never been before and grew. My dad saw thistles and got his hoe. He hated the thistles that sprang up in his fields. A butterfly sees a thistle and happily lands on it to find some rest and nourishment.
We look at this crawling thing and we see a worm or caterpillar. But if we can see beyond the caterpillar creeping along the ground or up a plant stem to munch a leaf, we’ll be rewarded by what it will become – a butterfly floating on the wind, making us smile just by fluttering past.
So many things in nature have a special beauty. Sometimes we see it. Sometimes we don’t. It’s hard to see the beauty in a wasp or bee when we get stung, but we’d be in a fix without the bugs that pollinate our plants. We can see the good each time we spot a bee working through a patch of clover blooms. We can certainly wonder about the beauty in a mosquito, but the bat or bird that feasts on them sees the good in the bug. So much of nature goes in a continual circle where flowers bloom, bees buzz, plants produce their seeds and start the cycle over again. And we can keep seeing the good.
It’s even better to do our best to see the good in our family members, neighbors, friends and even strangers we meet. To keep seeing the good even when they don’t agree with us about how to live life. To keep seeing the good even when they’ve done something that upsets us or disappoints us. To keep seeing the good in them even when they seem blind to any good in us. It could be that the Lord has looked down at them, at us, and seen what we can be when we spread our wings and float on the wind of His love. With the right attitude and the Lord’s help we can keep seeing the good even when bad appears to be winning the day.
Rain can bring rainbows. Caterpillars, butterflies. Dark nights, a sky full of stars. Endings, new beginnings. May we keep seeing the good.
Do you think striving to see the good in the world around us can give us happier days?
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” ~1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV)
Comments 9
Author
Thank you, Amy, Judi, Donna Jean and Diana. I so appreciate your amens and positive comments. I wasn’t sure I was able to exactly express what I was trying to convey in this devotional. So I’m so pleased that it spoke to your hearts.
Amen. As the song says,
He brings beauty from ashes,
He makes graves into gardens…
Author
That’s a beautiful thought, Lisa. In a nearby city, there is a cemetery that is a beautiful place with flowering trees in the spring and quiet resting spots among flowers. People go there to eat their lunches or walk. I wish all cemeteries could be like that. A place where people can enjoy life and memories.
Amen, Ann. Thank you.
Beautiful, all that needs said.
I think it’s always a good idea to look at the positive side instead of the negative. A person that does this seems to be in a happy mood most of the time.
Author
You are so right, Connie. It is so easy to get totally down and worried when we dwell on the things that are wrong. That’s what that great poem says that asks the Lord for the grace to accept what we can’t change and to change for the better what we can change and the wisdom to know the difference.
Beautiful, gentle reminder about perspective! Thank you, Ann!
beautiful reminder. Thanks