Mostly a matter of perspective.

( Waterlilies picked from yesterdays trip to " Me-Ma's lake"


Or an alternative title this post might be: Blogging with a baby on your lap. (While his big sister runs in and out the door with a handful of baby carrots to feed the imaginary baby bunnies that live in our yard...she is wearing her pink ballet leotard and white church shoes with golden curls that match the bounce in her step. )

A very dear friend sent me a email yesterday asking me, hows your summer going? Hows your heart doing? I adore her for that because she sees beyond the day to day, " Hi how are you, " that is asked without a pause taken to hear the reply. She notice's peoples hearts. She intentionally looks beyond the surface, not that she wouldn't be the first to notice a cute pair of earrings, just that she wouldn't stop there...that she would keep going... down deeper, and peer into your very heart. I long to grow in the habit of caring for others hearts. Especially the hearts of my husband, daughter, son, my family and my friends.

Also, I have been thinking a lot about the future and how it is built one day at a time and about how the future that I am looking into now, my children will look back on someday as their past, and how these days are so quickly turning into the years that make up their childhood. I ran across a quote yesterday that stopped me in my tracks and made me do some serious thinking. It's one very simple and yet profound sentence that struck a deep chord, and I have asked that the Lord would use it's truth in my life because more than anything in the world I the rhythm of my heart to beat in unison with His . And lately it feels like I am being reminded daily just how much of life has to do with perspective. That " What we see depends mainly on what we look for.”— John Lubbock. That the out come of a day, or a life, has so much to do with how we chose to perceive it. That you can see deep, unparalleled joy in the weak smile of the nine year old leukemia patient, who despite all she suffers sees each new day as a gift and lives with gratitude and appreciation...or you can hear the hollow misery in the voice of the woman with the flawlessly beautiful face, complete with designer car/bag/clothing/shoes/who has everything she could ever want, materially speaking and yet her life is frighteningly empty and she is obviously unhappy.

I wonder what would happen, if you were able to take two people, with similar temperaments and personalities and make their circumstances and environment identical...I am guessing that after such a experiment those two individuals could come up with very different views on the quality of their experience and whether it was positive or negative. So much hinges on perspective. That's why I want learn how to value what is lovely and good true... things like, cheerfulness, and humility, and patience, unselfishness, hospitality, kindness. Because I so desperately want Annabelle to be able to look back and on these days that are her childhood and be able to say...we might not have had the latest or best of anything , but that never kept us from being happy,and there was one thing we did have in abundance, the love of Jesus.