Looking on the bright side

Are you a “yard ornament” person?  Yes, I think I see that hand over there.  🙂

A friend told me years ago that when I got old I would probably have a bunch of gaudy yard ornaments in my yard.  (hmmm should I have stopped and wondered what made her say that??!)  Well I’m not “old” yet so I don’t have a bunch of them in my yard, and I sure don’t think the ones I have would be in the “gaudy” department!!  Out of the few that I do have, I think it’s safe to say that my little hedgehog is one of my favourites.  I just love him and his cheery little face!  Every Spring I take him outside and put him in one of my flowerbeds, and every Spring he makes me smile all over again.

Humour me here, as I make up a scenario about my little guy…  When I look at this picture of my hedgehog peeking up out of all the pretty flowers, I picture his view…his perspective…being quite amazing.  Can’t you just hear him saying,  “Wow!  Look at all these beautiful flowers!  Oooh, and they smell sooo good!  *sniff sniff sniff*  And I get to sit right in the middle of them all day long!  Ahhh…life is sooo good!”  🙂

As I walk by him, I look down and smile, seeing him all surrounded by the beautiful flowers; makes me feel all happy inside.  Surely he’s happy too!

Or maybe not…

Knowing human nature…or maybe I should say “hedgehog nature” here 😉 …its quite possible that he could be thinking, “Oh brother…why do I have to be stuck here, just sittin’ in the dirt.  Day in, and day out.  What a boring life.  I hate it here.  I bet all my other friends get to sit in stately, tourist gardens and here I am, stuck in a backyard flowerbed way out in the middle of nowhere.  Groan.”

Today I want to talk about our perspective.  We all have one and we all use it…every single day…and it’s either good or it’s bad.

Perspective.  Such a simple word…if only it were as simple to actually live it! To see things from God’s perspective and for His honour and glory. That’s where simplicity skips out the door…for me, at least.  I don’t know about you, but there are just times in my life that I struggle seeing the “all things work together for good” part. (Can someone nod their head right there, please?? Thank you!) My life and circumstances may be tipsy turvy, upside-down, and as hard as I try, I may not be able to change a single thing…except…my perspective.

Which brings me to my “quote of the day.”

Sometimes the only thing you can change is your perspective.

Recently, thoughts about “perspective” came to life to me, as the girls and I were taking a walk.

{I’ve mentioned before that we live in the city now.  I’m a “country girl” and have always loved living in the country…always!  But the Lord decided to plop me right in the middle of a city of over a million people.  Yes, you heard that right…over one million people.  Quite the sense of humour, don’t you think?!

Hmmm.  I’m not laughing, am I?}

Back to our walk…

On our walks we get to enjoy gawking looking at a lot of people’s yards.  Some are bigger than others, but none of them are huge…we live in the city, remember?!  (is there a note of bitterness there??  Maybe I need to reread my last blog post, huh… 😉 )

All the yards are different.  Some are obviously enjoyed by children.  Shouts, cries and laughter can be heard.  An array of toys and bikes are strewn all over, there’s a kiddie pool in the corner, and a swing set that shows much use, with bare patches in the grass where little feet land over and over again.

Other yards are immaculate and ornate…obviously the pride and joy of their owners.  Every flower, bush and tree has a specific place and purpose.  Like little soldiers, they are all lined up in perfect rows.  There’s not a weed or dandelion to be seen.  The patio furniture is setting where it sat last week and it will remain there, prim and proper, basically unmoved and untouched, in the weeks to follow.

Then there are yards that really make us look twice…not because they are full or toys or because they look like a park, but because its so barren that we look to see if maybe the house has been deserted.  The yard is bare; the porch might have an old rusty gas grill sitting all by itself.  The grass is patchy and weedy and looks like it hasn’t been tended to for weeks.  All is quiet.

But the yard that catches my attention every time we walk by it is this one…

It may have an old rusty gas grill on the back porch and no grass growing, but this yard is anything but deserted!  And I don’t know if you can see it or not, but this yard has quite a story to tell!

We have casually met the elderly gentleman that works in this immaculate little garden.  He’ll have a quick little comment to make to the girls as they walk by chatting away at each other, or he’ll call out to us to come back in a day or two when the strawberries are ready.  🙂  A cheery guy, working away in his “yard-turned-garden.”

If I had a chance to sit down and chat with the nice fellow, I might find out that he and his wife (who has said that she is more than happy to let him do the garden work!) used to live in the country.  Perhaps they used to own a small farm and his garden alone was bigger than the whole plot that his house sits on…or bigger than two or three houses!

His cheery disposition, at a quick glance, would make you think “life is good, and all is well” in his life.  And maybe it is…but then, maybe it’s not.  Maybe his life isn’t as “perfect” as it appears.  Perhaps it’s not going exactly like he’s wanted it to go.

But maybe he’s just decided to have the right perspective and enjoy what’s been handed to him at this stage in his life.

Instead of being out in his yard, working in his garden, he could just sit in his house and stare out his window at his very small yard and wish for the bigger yards, and bigger gardens of bygone days.  He could be grumpy and bitter that he used to have a home in the country and a large garden that he could bring in baskets of fresh veggies for his wife to can and put away for the long, cold winter months.

But then, perhaps he’s just thankful he has a yard, and not living on the 10th floor of a condo in the city centre.  And maybe he’s just thankful he’s got the strength and health to get down and plant the little seeds and pull those stubborn weeds.

I don’t know any of this for sure, but I think I can safely say that our elderly gentleman’s life isn’t perfect.  And because he cheerfully works in his garden doesn’t mean that he doesn’t struggle with wanting things to be different.  But maybe…just maybe…he’s determined in his heart to try and look at what life has handed him and do the best with it that he can.

I don’t know where I heard this quote from, but I’m thinking they heard it first from our gardening neighbour…

“No one ever injured their eyesight by looking on the bright side.”

I’m not saying it’s always easy…but it is possible.  Just because one person sees the bright side doesn’t mean it was easier for him than the person you want to turn and run from when you see them coming…you know who I’m talking about.  That person that always has the “gloom and doom” report – brought to you daily by Mr. or Mrs. “I Have The Wrong Perspective!”

It’s like the guy sleeping on the couch and someone comes and smears a little limburger cheese in his moustache…and when he wakes up he shakes his head and says, “Whew!  This couch stinks!”  Then, as he walks through the house he says, “Man! This house stinks!!”  He steps outside, sniffs and hollers, “The whole world stinks!!!”

But it was just a little rotten cheese (sorry to all of you out there who love limburger cheese 😉 ) under his nose.  His perspective was tainted and he was convinced the whole world stank!

Having the right perspective doesn’t always come so easy.  You may have a difficult situation you’re living through right now and you may struggle day after day, trying to get – and keep – victory in your heart and mind.   I feel your pain!  Believe me, I have my own daily – and often hourly! – struggles!  I struggle with wrong and negative thoughts and emotions.  My perspective gets “off” too often, but thankfully, oh so thankfully, I can sense the Lord gently nudging me (well…sometimes I think He has to knock me on the head because I’m in such a tizzy that I’m not thinking straight and can’t hear His still small voice…but either way, I’m thankful for His nudges, gentle or not!!)…as He’s reminding me (again!) that His way is perfect.  (Psalm 18:30 and II Samuel 22:31)

My Father’s way may twist and turn,

My heart my throb and ache

But in my heart, I’m glad I know

He maketh no mistake.

When our son Benjamin was in the hospital for his cancer, it would have been very easy to see other children with less severe things wrong with them than Ben, and it would have been easy to wish we were in their shoes instead of dealing with brain cancer, multiple surgeries, and trying to manage his pain.  I’m sure I had those kind of thoughts, but thankfully the Lord helped me to be thankful for a lot of things during that time…He led us a different direction than chemo…there were children who had to have limbs removed because of their cancer and we didn’t have to face that… Over and over again, we saw God’s goodness to us through it all.

Yes, we had our difficulties and it was a very hard time for us.  Believe me, there were lots of tears and lots of things that I struggled with through all of that, but having a “poop-lined cloud” (sorry if that’s too crude!) wouldn’t have helped me, nor would it have helped Joe or Ben or the rest of the family or those we were dealing with each and every day.  I could have made life miserable for all of us and what good would that have been?  None.  Absolutely none.

Instead, the Lord let our son’s illness be a “silver-lined cloud” to others and like I mentioned before, there are two missionary families in Canada today because they saw the Lord’s faithfulness in our lives back then.

These days I struggle with having the right perspective with my mom’s death and with the doctor’s diagnosis of PTSD for me.  I have good days and I have bad days and my bad days seem to outweigh my good days…but through it all, I want to see the “silver lining”  and not the…well, you know…

Do I have V-I-C-T-O-R-Y every single day?  Nope.  Do I strive for it?  Yes!

I really do want to be the chipper ole gardener that’s working in his garden, offering fresh strawberries to passersby.  And I don’t want to be the guy with limburger cheese smeared under his nose, that thinks the whole world stinks.

So my friends, is it fresh strawberries for you…or limburger cheese?!  😉