Assuming Bad

I was recently watching DIY networks Yard Crashers.  This is where a DIY personality searches home improvements stores for homeowners who could use a pro’s expertise to transform their backyards from drab to grand!   Who wouldn’t love that?

But you would be surprised at how hard he has to work to get some people to take him home.  The first 5-10 minutes of each show has him running around the local big box stores trying to convince people he is a good guy and is going to do what he says he is going to do.

And that started me to thinking.  Why do we automatically assume that people are bad, want something from us or have an ulterior motive?  Why do we immediately think of all the situations we could get into that would be detrimental to our health, wealth, and relationships?  Why do we see the glass as half empty and not half full?

I tend to get bogged down in the minutia of the day and wallow in the negative rather than focus on the positive in my day.  This creates a negative pattern of behavior in my brain that eventually clouds my vision of the positive.  Quickly, my world spirals into a dark place.  And I don’t like dark places.

So how do we see the nice young man who wants to help create an oasis in our back yard and not a man who wants to plant us 10 feet deep in our backyard?

I think we have to learn how to build a positive perspective by actively seeking out the positive aspects in our daily life.  The practice of developing a positive experience has a definite impact on our quality of life and others are drawn to us because of this perspective.

I know what you are thinking: “You should be in my life right now.   People don’t just walk up to me and say they want to spend thousands of dollars fixing up my yard, Loretta.  That’s just television”.  You may be right.   But good things happen all around us and most often, they are not on TV.  I would rather search for the good than seek the bad.

I won’t deny that there may be something missing in our lives or that we may be in pain right now.  I would like to suggest that we can choose which elements in our life we are going to notice.    The Serenity Prayer asks us to change what we can change, accept what we can’t change, and grow in wisdom to know the difference.  But do you know the rest of the Serenity Prayer?  It tells us how to see the glass as half full.

“Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking as Jesus did this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will so that I may be reasonable happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next”.

Now that’s a perspective I want to live with – with or without the DIY landscaped back yard.

 

 

 

Comments (0)

  1. I liked this posting being a fan of Yard Crashers and married to a half empty glass personality. I believe trusting God and developing a relationship with Him opened my eyes to good around me. It takes lots of focus to not be affected by this negative world but worth all the effort. I can be the light in someones darkness when needed. I have fine tuned my patience and listening ability. I pray for assistance and give thanks for the blessings I have. I also browse up and down isles of Loews and HomeDepot looking for the YardCrasher looking for me! It could happen.

    August 2, 2015 at 1:44 pm
    1. I think you are “spot on”, Harmony. While I find myself getting mired sometimes, why would I want to stay in the mire of negativity–it only makes my life harder. God gives us another way, doesn’t He? Thanks for reading my blog! Please continue and I hope you enjoy it.

      August 3, 2015 at 12:32 pm

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