The other day I was sitting outside reading the bible and Garrett was playing in the yard and as I was sitting there, I paused to think about what I had just read. It was at this moment I thought of how fast the days seem to go by. Garrett is 3 and going into preschool already. Just to sit back and think about how fast he is growing up scared me. The days with him just don't seem long enough, but really they are he is full of energy and he really can drive me crazy! But he is in the stage of "why." I am not exaggerating when I say that I must hear the question "why" at least a hundred thousand times a day. There are days I just wish he could not talk yet because it gets to be excessive, but then I was thinking about the reason he does it. The world through his eyes is so pure. Is there really any evil in his world yet? Not really....he loves the simple things like beaches, sand, running, playing with his toys, the clouds, thunder, and so much of those things us adults take for granted. The purity in his world is extraordinary. I would love to see that world all the time, as the Lord wanted us to have many beautiful things.
The bible is a great place to find how God wants us to live our lives and treat others and see his creation. God created the sky, the moon, the stars, grass, the ocean and so many other beautiful things in this world, but what are we focused on? As adults we all focus on what's in the news....the president making poor decisions, politicians having affairs, people murdering others, gun laws, and health issues. I know that the news is a big thing for many of us as I can go through my Facebook and see at least five posts a day regarding some topic in the news! Is this the stuff we should be focused on? I swear the news makes things so much worse. We are human and we crave excitement and knowledge and watching the news helps feed our craving for knowledge. My grandpa watches CNN 24/7 unless a pirates game is on. I can walk into his house and see that on the TV anytime he is home guaranteed. It has become his go to channel and let me tell you he believes every thing those newscasters report, even if there is 5 different versions. Are these stories something we should be focusing on? Not at all.....these people that do evil things should not have their day of fame! What would the news be like if they only reported the GOOD things that happened. Think about it....what if we turned on channel 6 and the headlines read some thing like "13 year old Girl achieves state rankings in Gymnastics" or "Man helped his neighbor build a ramp" or "School members Unite together to help families in need." Think about all the positives we would have in the community. We hear about schools going to Positive school wide approaches, what if the nation went to positive approaches as well. Wouldn't that be something? Our kids would learn about all the good in the world and hey they might actually follow by that example instead of the one that is portrayed now. I must say, I worry about Garrett's perception of the world as he moves into preschool and school. His pure world where he wonders what is thunder, how far away the moon is, or why mommy and daddy have to work will quickly change. I worry about the world and all the things that happen and don't get me wrong I turn on the Today show in the morning, but at the end of the day those news headlines do not stay with me. Do these headlines affect how people feel? Well think about your emotions after reading or hearing about a mass murder or someone raising taxes. As a human many emotions can be attributed to those headlines such as anger, sadness, frustration, or confusion. None of those are attributed to happiness. Now if you hear headlines with someone helping others out of the kindness in their own hearts, you might feel happy. Hmmmmmmm.....I think I want to feel happiness. I am tired of feeling scared, angry, hurt, sad, and resentful every time I turn on the news. It only creates for a frustrating day and it messes with people's emotions. So I am sorry mister news reporter, but I don't want to hear negative things anymore. Can't we start to report good things. I mean there are tons of things to report like people beating cancer, churches helping people in need, kids achieving their goals, and so much other good stuff out there we don't see because we are all too busy looking for the negative.
I want to stop feeling negative about myself and the world we live in. I know the world has its evilness to it, but I want to start hearing the good things about our country and world. Can't we hear the good things? I know this pursuit to find happiness is going positive for me and I want to hear positives in the world. Here I sit proud that we are taking in another teenage foster child (female), my son sees such a pure world, and my house is actually staying organized with my new cleaning schedule. Not only am I happy about all that but As of July 1st, I am starting a strict exercise plan...I want to really step up what I have already been doing. So to all you news posting facebookers.....start finding the positives! We can really help change our emotions with reading something so small yet positive!
I hope we all find joy this fourth of July!
God Bless,
Amanda
