Its all a matter of perspective.

 

A man once was complaining about how quickly his children wore out shoes. He fussed at them, saying "you just don't understand how much these things cost!" Feeling a bit sorry for himself, he went with his children into a shoe store. As the sales lady helped him fit his children with shoes, he repeated his complaint to her. To his surprise, she broke out in tears and had to take a short break from helping him.

 

When she returned, she apologized to the father. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to break down like that. You see, my daughter was born with a birth defect and is in a wheelchair. She never has, and never will wear out a pair of shoes. I would give ANYTHING if I had to buy her shoes because she had worn them out."

 

Do you know what that father did? When he got home, he made a little altar of those old worn out shoes that he had been complaining about. He knelt before them in prayer, confessing his sin to His heavenly Father. He closed his prayer this way. "thank you God for worn out shoes!"

 

Its so easy to focus on the negatives, isn't it? So easy to forget how blessed we are and how much we have to be thankful for. The economy is difficult.. but we ate today. Life may not go our way.. but there are people who love us and genuinely care for us. People may disagree with our opinion.. but we live in a wonderful country where they have the freedom to do that!

 

We need to remember the example of Paul. From prison he wrote:

 

"And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear. It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice."

Philippians 1:12-18 (NLT)