After several overcast days, this morning the sun was shining brightly through my window. I walked into the kitchen and was surprised to see small crumbs scattered across my kitchen counter.
“Where did you come from?” I said aloud. The immediate answer was obvious. Since I live alone, they had to have come from me.
Apparently, I had not paid enough attention to keeping this area clean. It was easy to ignore until the sun illuminated this problem spot.
Truthfully, this is only one area of my home that has been neglected during a tumultuous year. But I digress.
Back to the crumbs on my counter. As I was wiping them up, I found a few more that had been hiding. It didn’t take long to draw an analogy to my life.
The crumbs represent negative thoughts, grumbling, making excuses, etc. These thoughts don’t cause an impact on my personal well being until they start to add up. I look the other way and either pretend they don’t exist or they aren’t important. Sooner or later though, something illuminates my bad attitude and I wonder where the negativity came from.
To keep from getting to this point, a daily practice of gratitude is necessary. Being thankful clears away the crumbs of negativity. Instead of grumbling because I have to drive on winter roads, I am grateful to have a safe, reliable vehicle. This is but one of the many examples I can think of.
When I concentrate on all the blessings in my life, the crumbs are dealt with and my attitude improves.
How do you keep the crumbs from accumulating on the counter of your life?
Tag: negativity
A Drop In The Bucket
Just before leaving the house for the morning I made what I thought would be a quick trip to the basement. At the bottom of the stairs I heard a drip, drip, drip. “Oh, that can’t be good,” I thought.
It didn’t take long to identify the problem. A pipe that circulates the water for our in-floor heating had sprung a leak. I had been in this area less than 30 minutes before and everything was fine so this took me by surprise. I quickly found a bucket, mopped up the floor and said a prayer of thanks that this had been discovered before I left the house.
While waiting for a plumber that day I learned that even a pinhole opening in a pipe can disperse a lot of water. Drop by drop my bucket filled until it needed to be emptied. A large outdoor garbage can was brought in to hold the bucket and catch any overflow. The dripping didn’t stop until the main water line to the house had been turned off.
This was a powerful visual of what negative thoughts and ideas can do in my life. The first few are just drops in an empty bucket. A little doubt and disappointment here, some fear and anxiety there and soon these drops accumulate. It doesn’t take long for them to become a steady stream of negativity. Before I know it my bucket is full to overflowing. Then it spills out and affects those around me.
The only way to stop this is to turn it off at the source. When I take all of my concerns to God he is able to take the negativity away. Through my faith in him, he will allow it to be replaced with peace, joy and hope. Now those are things I’m happy to overflow with.
May God, the source of hope, fill you with joy and peace through your faith in him. Then you will overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13 GWT)