Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Embrace The Ordinary

Another key to true happiness lies in the understanding that most of life is "everyday."  Most of our lives consist of a routine--an unremarkable series of events that take place day after day, year after year.  Sometimes people think enjoying life means celebrating special occasions, important milestones, going on vacation, ect.  The truth is:  life is not one big party, we should not expect to giggle our way through everyday.  We need to celebrate life's exciting occasions and its big events, but in between them, we must be able to find joy in fighting traffic, going to work, cleaning house, raising children, etc.

We all have responsibilities and things we must do, so when I speak of enjoying each day, I'm not talking about entertaining ourselves from daylight to dark.  I'm talking about the everyday situations in which we learn to enjoy everyday life.  Enjoying life begins with making a decision to do so, no matter what kind of lives we have, we will not enjoy them unless we decide to do so.  Most of life involves getting up in the morning, going to bed at night,and doing what we need to do in the meantime.

"The Kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed upon the ground, and then continues sleeping and rising night and day while the seed sprouts and grows and increases he knows not how."  Mark 4:26-27

This scripture teaches us that something happens to a seed, a process of growth and nourishment that no one can see.  The same principle applies to our lives.  Much of life takes place when no one is looking and God works in our lives during the ordinary times.  True life is not found in arriving at a destination, its found in the journey.  (Joyce Meyers-Happiness)

I was thinking of Norman Rockwell today.  How it would be nice to actually live within his pictures.


But it's not going to happen; the world has changed too much.  Maybe the Lord is teaching me that no matter the circumstances of life and the turmoil of this world; I can have serenity within.   It's a process with growth taking place during everyday life.  I'm going to make a conscious decision to enjoy this day--today.


1 comment:

Retta said...

Wow.

"Enjoying life begins with making a decision to do so..."

This is the 3rd time in 3 days I've read or heard the same message: the power of decision.

And I don't ever remember reading that verse in Mark and thinking about it in that way. That's a lot to think about.

AND... as an artist, Normal Rockwell was one of my heroes. He got a lot of criticism for his style and content, since during his time it was becoming popular to paint turmoil/dark/ugly paintings. But he said he wanted to paint the world as he wished it to be... the regular people, living good lives. He wanted to celebrate the goodness of life, the possibilities.

Loved this post... so much to think about.
Loretta
=^..^=