Looking Up - My New Perspective (Hopefully)

Lately I have been frustrated with myself.  In my head I go on and on about the things that I don't like about myself - I am not happy-go-lucky, I internalize everything, I don't know how to have a better relationship with this person or that, I am a pessimist, I am overweight, I am not thankful enough, I am not kind enough, etc.  The list could go on and on...  

So, this afternoon I was washing dishes and looking out my kitchen window thinking of how I really hate the view out that stupid window... and about how at my old house I had a bay window over the kitchen sink that overlooked hills and trees and trails... and about how much I miss that house.  Our home.  Here, at this house, I have a neighbor's fence and house to look at topped off by my flat backyard that is mostly dirt and weeds in that area.  

See?  Not happy-go-lucky.  Just "yucky".  Obviously, I want to change a few things about myself.  But here's the catch.  Most of those things that need changing are going to have to have some major help from God to make it happen.  I have worked on most of those things for years... without a lot of luck.  They might not be out of my control... but they certainly are not in my control... thus, the problem.  So, as I was standing there washing dishes, complaining in my head about the ugly view, I felt God prompt me to look up.  When I did, this is what I saw.

It was beautiful.  Green trees.  Full of life.  A blue sky as far as my eye could see.  Nothing ugly about it.  Just beauty.  My perspective was totally different than it had been just seconds before.  I felt Him gently point out to me that although there were weeds and ground that was dirt instead of grass, the majority of my view was beautiful.  

Like that, my life has weeds that need to be picked and sod that needs to be laid, but the view - to Him - is beautiful and lovely.  Like the view of His creation cannot be defined by the weeds and dirt in my backyard, I am not defined by all of my deficiencies.  There is more to the picture than that.  Much more.

I instantly ran to get my camera, so I could document this moment that I shared with my Lord and so I could remember that there is beauty in this lowly earth - in the ugliest of situations - even if it is not obviously at every given moment... And mostly, to help me to remember to "look up"!