Shares Well with Others

a couple of my blessings

Ahhh… quiet. Just the sound of the air conditioner and the fans running. Music to my ears and pregnant body. J Grandma ran off with the girls for the day, so I will hopefully be finding my kitchen again (it is very lost) and working on a meal for a friend.. and maybe even us.Summertime and 8 months pregnant has my meal plan out the window, and my husband never sure if there will be dinner when he comes home from work or not. J Luckily, he hasn’t been complaining.

Yesterday I was looking thru an Uppercase Living catalog, when I came across the expression “Don’t just count your blessings; Share them.” I love a good proverb, one that goes against the grain of how people tend to think, and this one stopped me in my tracks. Counting my blessings is one thing I have been trying really hard to do lately. I know that God wants me to focus on those and not the complaints I have. But sharing them? Well, that goes against how conversation works in our world… in many circles. Doesn’t it?

Am I the only one that finds myself sharing my complaints more than my blessings? It goes something like this:

“Hey, how’s it going?”

“Oh, good! How are you?!”

“Good, good. I mean, now that Clare has stopped screaming for a bit, things are much better! Haha..”.. laughter, etc..

“Yeah, I know what you mean. (Fill in name of child here) is (pick one) teething/weaning/mad at her sister/getting an attitude/bored and so it has made for an exhausting (pick one) weekend/day/summer.”

“Oh, yeah, yeah. Been there!! I remember when…”

..And the conversation continues, sharing sob stories and the drama of our children. On one hand these interactions are important. We have to share our not-so-perfect lives with each other… especially as moms. It’s vital for us to know that we are NOT alone and we have ALL been there.We may even glean a new approach or two out of the exchange.

But how often do our conversations focus on sharing a good thing or two? It seems like the path to that conversation winds around a little more, and doesn’t last as long. We don’t know how to nurture that conversation the way we do the pity party.

I’m not sure why this is, and I’m not sure how much analysis it requires. But it made me think of this little suggestion that Paul has in Philippians chapter 4, verse 8:

Whatever is True, whatever is Right, whatever is Pure, whatever is Lovely, whatever is Admirable – if anything is Excellent or Praiseworthy – think about such things.

I like to capitalize those ideas, and think about them sometimes; attempting to identify what in my life might qualify. Some days it’s harder than others. Maybe that is one of the reasons it’s so fun to have Clare around. The funny things she says work for True and sometimes Pure. J If anything they give us a good laugh, which seems like an Excellent thing.

Maybe this week I should really try to identify what in my life is True and Right and Lovely.Maybe I’ll make a little chart and put it on the fridge and when I think of something I can jot it down up there in between filling a juice cup and wiping a spill. Maybe I can “think about such things” and then figure out how to share them in conversation. And maybe we’ll all be surprised at how easy it really is.

A few more things to praise about...