Our dog is having a bad time tonight. We have glass covered bookcases and she keeps seeing another dog inside the bookcase. When I open the case that other dog goes away. When the glass comes down the dog comes back. It is very troubling and cause for concerned growling. It’s hard to rest with that other dog invading her space.
This is an easy analogy. When we spend time looking at ourselves, unless we are quite taken with ourselves, life becomes troubled. One or more of several things can happen. Number one – we can begin to concentrate on our imperfections and become discouraged with our lack of progress in overcoming. Or number two – we can start feeling sorry for ourselves thinking we are not getting all the good things we deserve. Or number three – we can think others are expecting too much from us. Or number four – we can start thinking people are out to get us. The list could go on depending on our personalities. The point is looking at ourselves is rarely productive. Life works best when instead we spend our productive hours looking for opportunities to do our job better or to find inventive ways to make others lives happier.
I’m reminded of the old nursery rhyme that goes like this. “Nobody loves me. Everybody hates me. Guess I’ll go eat worms. Long, thin, slimy ones; short, fat, juicy ones, itsy, bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms.” Just in case you ever get to feeling like that allow me to remind you that “Nobody loves me” just isn’t true. We are very loved. And we can always count on that love. It endures despite our sometimes unloveableness.
Written by Roger Bothwell on December 9, 2010
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Bo 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org