As I prepare to go to bed tonight, I can't help but meditate on a quote I stumbled upon this morning:
"How much more pleasant this world would be if we magnified our blessings the way we magnify our disappointments." - Unknown.
Humbling, right?! Off the top of my head I can rattle off trivial disappointments like my failed attempt at a car wash because the machine did not accept my cash, forgetting to buy kidney beans at the store, waiting for over 15 minutes for a lane at the pool, and spending half the day with my name tag from church still displayed on the front of my sun dress. And that's just scratching the surface.
On the other hand, communicating my blessings takes far more work. Even at a trivial level, listing my blessings doesn't seem to prompt the same kind of discussion that disappointments do. This is not to say that blessings don't prompt conversation, but for some reason most people are much better at relating to disappointment then they are at identifying with blessing. Perhaps this is because we tend to have more practice at one than the other?
For me, the answer to that question poses a call to action. I am literally minutes away from closing my eyes and sleeping away the last moments of my freedom-filled spring break. Being back into the swing of things will inevitably throw me into a situation where my disappointments will be easy to name in contrast with the quiet and restful week that I am leaving behind. Given the fact that work in and of itself is a blessing, something tells me that whatever I am seeking to share with others is what I will see. It may be easier to magnify a disappointment but it is far more edifying to give voice to a blessing.
This is just the blog post I needed to read. Thanks for sharing.
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