new perspectives

Here are some photos I've taken recently with all my free time :) Some different perspectives on things.

how many times each day do we pass by little things in life that are full of beauty without ever stopping to enjoy them?

(Just so you know...this photo shows the moss growing on the sidewalk where I go exercising behind the college here.)

 

Of course there are some things we can't help but to see the beauty in.

But we don't often look at them from a different perspective...

This is the same rose a few days later as it was drying out I pulled it off the stem gently and found a totally different beauty when I turned it upside down.

Content?

I've been thinking today about all the things I wish were different, or that I'd like to change.
We humans have such an innate desire for what we don't have. We are often wishing we were somewhere we are not, or hoping to become something we aren't, all this time desiring change. This can be a propelling and motivating force to help us get to places we would never otherwise reach. But this same desire can be a road block in our way.
   Doesn't it seem we always have something about ourselves we'd like to change? Maybe it is our hair, eye color, or even personality. And then there is our surroundings; I am sure you've heard someone who is tired of the daily grind complain how boring life is and how they wish their life was more exciting. But another person on the other side of the spectrum also finds a reason for change. They complain that life is "too exciting" that all the adventure is too much and they'd like life to be routine and predictable for awhile. Will we ever be happy, just how we are, and just where we are?!
 Paul wrote about this and he made a bold statement - He said: " I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation." (Phil 4:12). It is the well-known verse that follows that seems to hold the secret. where he says "I can do everything through him who give me strength." It was Christ's strength that gave him the ability to be content in every circumstance. God knows what things in our life need to be changed and what is best left the same.

"Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.  After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. " -1 Tim 6:6-8

Sitting, waiting..

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." 

To wait = to look around in eager anticipation or confident expectation.

To sit in the place God has led you to and just wait. Somehow it sounds so easy and simple. But inside the struggle is great. In fact it's not "just waiting". As the definition implies, the waiting that God requires of us involves more, he commands us to look towards the future and to expect Him to work. To gather strength from that expectation.

In every situation and through the circumstances surrounding us God wants to work in us and help us grow. Even when it seems we're "just sitting, waiting".  The following quote that a friend shared, is so appropriate.  "They also serve who only stand and wait." J. Milton