True Beauty

I've spent a lot of time over the past 3-4 years doing a lot of nothing. Part of that may be because of my illness, or maybe it's a constant battle with time. I so often feel that I have so little time ... time to do the dishes, time to run to the bank, time to play with the kids, time to live the life God has given to me. This morning, as Brandon climbed up the steps onto his preschool bus he turned to me and said, "Mom! Take a little time to enjoy the view!" For those of you who spend your mornings at home, you may recognize this phrase as the tag line at the end of each program on "The View." (Barbara Walters, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Whoopi Goldbergh, Sheri Shephard and Joy Behar.) I am not a fan of the show, but it follows "The People's Court" so it is often left on as background noise while Brandon and I do house chores, play or get ready for preschool.

Anyway, as the bus drove away I chuckled and thought that I'd sure like to have time to enjoy the view ... but I had errands to run and milk to buy and clothes to fold. I climbed into the van, but before I was able to get the key into the ignition I noticed just how beautiful the sky was this morning. It wasn't just a "oh, that's pretty" observation, but it was a "Wow. Isn't that amazing? The clouds are wispy like cotton candy ... oh, cotton candy sounds yummy." Well, as you can tell I am easily taken off track by my own mind! My sister calls it a "There Goes a Chicken!" moment.

Instead of starting the van, I decided that I did in fact have time to spare. The groceries could wait, the laundry could be folded tonight after the little stinkpots were in bed. I sat there and watched the sky for a few minutes, enjoyed the colored leaves as they fell off of my favorite tulip tree into the neighbor's yard (oops!) and remembered the smile Brandon left me with as he hopped onto his bus. True Beauty ... not just a passing "that's nice", but the kind of beauty that only comes from God.

I came inside and made myself a glass of ice water. Instead of rushing through the task, I listened to the popping and cracking of ice as the tap water hit it. I marveled at just how wonderful the ice cold drink refreshed me. Silly? Ya, probably. We just don't have time in our busy lives to pay attention to such ridiculous little things like ice cubes, right? Well, I've decided that the Jones Family, Mom and Kids, are going to add another family activity to our nightly bedtime routine. The kids already tell me one thing that made them sad that day, something that made them happy, and one thing they are grateful for. Now I am going to challenge them to find true beauty in something each day. It can be an object, a feeling, a word ... anything. I think, when the time is appropriate, we'll journal their beautiful discoveries with pictures, recordings (in the case of a melody, or a word, etc.) Years from now they may want to look back on their childhood and hopefully rediscover the joy they found seeking out true beauty.

Today I challenge you to take a few moments each day to seek out something that you typically wouldn't pay attention to and find a bit of true beauty. I'm sure you will find things that, in your own mind, have nothing beautiful about it, but try. A sink of dirty dishes? Maybe the beauty in that is remembering the conversation you had at dinner with the kids while eating on those very annoying and dirty dishes.

Just don't forget to take a little time and enjoy the view!

Until Tomorrow,
Kathy