Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Snapshots of the Mind

I realized this morning as I was grumping around straight from my grumpy slumber that there is a great disparity between the thoughts/ideas/memories I tend to want to capture on film and the ones I am constantly capturing in my head. I was loading some pictures from my cell phone onto my computer when I started looking through a whole slew of photographs from the last two years. You know what I noticed? Every single photograph was an attempt to capture some aspect of goodness in our day to day life. Why then do I insist on capturing less than pleasant memories in my daily thoughts. By that I mean, why do I choose to mull over and meditate on the very things that drive me crazy, make me mad, etc.?

If I had taken a photograph of my face this morning as I sludged through my disgustingly dirty kitchen it would not have been a pleasant sight to behold. Do I really want my kids to have to look at that first thing in the day? Now in my head I am grumpy because everyone else is grumpy. Kids have allergies and colds, nobody wants to get up, Dad is sick and stressed, house is a wreck, and the list goes on and on and on. But why do I want to capture that energy as my own? Could it be possible to smile, as if this moment the paparazzi of my heart were lurking somewhere outside my kitchen waiting to capture my tude on film? And what if that smile causes someone else's day to get a little brighter? I know mine did just looking at the "happy" moments we have captured on film. And even if everyone is still schlepping around in their own misery - maybe just maybe - I'll feel better if I just smile. Think Happy Thoughts. Capture the moments in my heart and in my head that are worth being there.

Moments Worth Remembering This Week:
  • Playing dress up with the kids while being chased through the neighborhood.
  • Finding an even more perfect flower girl dress.
  • Getting all my money back for the first flower girl dress.
  • Hubby finishing laundry that would have taken me another week to finish.
  • Kiddos helping neighbor.
  • My car starting every day.
  • Tomatoes from the garden in the pasta.

Philippians 4:8 (The Message)

8-9Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

3 comments:

angela said...

Elizabeth George wrote a book called "A Woman After God's Own Heart" a while back and in it she has what she calls "The Heart of a Homemaker". I loved the list b/c it is very, very challenging to me. One of the items was "I will be intentionally happy". I put the list next to my coffee maker so every morning I read it. It really has helped me focus on the good things, the blessings from God because some mornings I do not want to be happy.

Betsy said...

great post!

chastityrose said...

You're so right! lol Hi there! I just found you here from your old Xanga site. I'm glad to know you're still alive and writing. I wish you the best Christmas and all God's best!

Love Lisa (Chastityrose)