Perspective...

So, yes, I know, it has only been a couple of days since my last blog, but this has been so interesting, I needed to share. Thursday morning I got ready to leave for school, as I went into the living room where mom and Bella were sitting, Bella growled at me when I leaned over to kiss my mom goodbye. Well, I couldn't let that go, that's naughty! So, I......growled back at her...made sense to me. Mom didn't like that very much. She got upset with me for doing that in Bella's face...ugh! I got a little upset because, I told her Bella needs to learn that that is NOT ok to do. She told me that she doesn't know any better, she's just a little dog. Well, how else is she going to learn if we don't teach her. I head into the kitchen, Bella and mom follow, as I'm getting ready to go, I hear my mom do her famous mom, "Ah ah ah!" I realized she was doing that to Bella because she went to her dish to eat her food, but mom didn't want her to eat yet without having prayed first. I told her just to let Bella eat if she was hungry. She told me that Bella needed to learn not to eat before they prayed for the food. So now I'm bothered, it's ok for her to growl at me, but she has to learn to pray before she eats? Seriously??? I left the house feeling a little crazy, and ok, I was going to try to avoid admitting it, but may as well just say it, yes, a little annoyed. So, sad to say, that started my day a little off, I know pitiful that this is all that it takes. Well, it certainly didn't help that on the way to the highway someone cut right in front of me, and was going slower than I was, that didn't help my attitude of course. But it gets better, when I got on the highway, I was able to get over in the next lane to get from behind this car, but ohhhh, wouldn't you know...they managed to get over in front of me again!! Ugh...seriously??? I was just a bit beyond annoyed at this point. I was able to get over in the next lane, and thankfully they didn't! If they looked at me as I passed they would have seen my unhappy face. I was even talking to myself, saying I didn't need this stress today, why are you bothering me, this is ridiculous, you are just trying to annoy me, I hope no one gives me a hard time at school, because I may not be in a good mood. That morning during reading class with my kids we read a great story about a queen who wanted to find a lesson to help squelch the complaining between the lords and ladies in her kingdom. She had two pages go to all the gardens throughout her kingdom, one was to find flowers, the other was to find weeds. When the two pages having gone different ways, came back to the queen, they both had different stories to tell. The first one told how the kingdom was so full of all kinds of beautiful flowers, the second reported that there were only a bunch of weeds everywhere. When asked if he saw any weeds the first page said he didn't notice any, when asked if he saw any flowers, the second page said he didn't notice any. The queen was trying to teach the lords and ladies that it all depends on how we choose to look at things. It's all about the right "perspective". We talked about that for a little while after the story, I wanted to make sure the students really understood what "perspective" was. I had to use my morning exploits as a prime example. It felt like the Lord was poking me, telling me that it was a great day to check my "perspective", especially from that morning. By the time I started sharing with my students the craziness of my morning, their giggles and laughter about it all helped change my "perspective", and I had to laugh at myself too. Chapel that day was also a great blessing to me and taught me so much, but I might just use that for another blog really soon so I don't forget it.
Thank you, Lord, for stepping on my toes through my kids reading to remind me to have the right "perspective" about things. This is not always easy to do. So, I really need your help. I want to have the right "perspective", but many times I give in to the complaining spirit that wants to rear its ugly head. Help remind me that a right "perspective" can make all the difference.