Ever noticed, its easy to see what everyone else has, but you?
Social media parades this fact in our faces…
She’s changing the world by starting through missions in Africa and is being publicly rewarded. The other gal is hanging out with the very group that rudely excluded you. The old friend is now building a whole sports complex in her backyard and her family always looks picture-perfect. Another woman smiles in bliss with her husband in Bermuda – of course, her body is perfect in that tan bikini.
But you?
Youre sitting like a blob on the couch, hair in messy bun, dirty dishes stacked high in the sink and the dirty toilets are calling your name today because they must be cleaned.
Friends, Ill tell you. . . I know what it is to sit in this seat.
From home, it is easy to observe people. Not only in what God is doing in their lives, but also by seeing how good they have it. How happy they seem… All God has given them… What things look like…
In some ways, I havent gotten what others have. Maybe you feel the same way? Like you havent been treated as well? That your marriage got the short end of the stick? That you were treated unfairly or ripped off by people? I wonder, is there sometimes pain in the offering of these things to God?
I get it.
Online, we see peoples best of days, often on our worst of days. With all this in mind, the other day, I prayed to God about my lot. It probably sounded something like this:
“God, I’ve moved around a lot. You know it, and I know it! Father, you know Ive always wanted a garden, but I rent. Why am I going to make beautiful, a rented yard? Thats not my lot…”
But, at the same time, I realized: it is my lot.
Here, it was as if God was saying, Kelly, love your lot. Love your lot, a lot.”
To love my lot, I went out to the garden store and bought a huge box of flowers. I planted them all over my rented lot. New buds of hope. New blooms of life and perspective. Brightness on my ground. Rather than seeing what I didnt have, I chose to beautify and relish in what I did have.
Now, in the evenings, my kids and I go out and look at what has grown. We enjoy our lot.
How can you enjoy and beautify – relish and wonder – over your lot, no matter how bad it may seem? Friends, truly – no matter how bad it looks – there is a lot God has given you. What if, rather than seeing what you dont have, you gain eyes to see what you really do have? What if, rather than hating, you start playing up what is working? What if, rather than complaining, you start thanking God for what is your ground, your body, your family?
Maybe you’ll see that your lot is not only a lot, but now a garden.
“I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.” (Phil. 4:10-14 MSG)
Prayer: Father, give me eyes to see – what I do have. Give me a heart to love what you have given me. Show me ways to appreciate and value what youve put around me. I want your view and your hope as it pertains to my lot. In Jesus name. Amen.
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My home’s floor was broken to make a way for a pipe. The landlord simply covered it with cement, making it too rough for me to mop it. Besides staying dirty it releases the cement dust.
It is one more step to turn the house far from being a home.
I was contemplating the strip then I remembered that the floor of Jesus home was worst than mine.
He, the owner of the gold and silver, could had the best floor, but he had less than me.
With debilitating chronic illness, this topic is a daily struggle for me. Thank you for giving me a new goal of perspective. God bless you and thank you for taking the time to write this.