Monday, January 25, 2016

Beach Week

      It's Beach Week at school and the weather cooperated by giving us a balmy high of 24 degrees. The kids showed up in shorts, sandals, giant floppy hats and colorful leis. Aloha! For our group picture I thought it would be fun to run outside in our Hawaiian glory and snap a picture in the falling snow. We managed to forget to put the pin in the door and locked ourselves out, thus having to run around the building to the front door, cue laughter and squealing.  
    This all reminded me of a snowy winter day when I was a kid. We were cooped up and I'm sure fighting cabin fever. So, my mom let us have a beach day. We laid out beach towels, put on shorts and t-shirts, slathered on lotion(sunscreen) and imagined warmer days. I also remember, when we were living in Kenya,  having a pool party in the bathtub with my siblings and probably a neighbor kid or two. Moments in time. Memories. Stories.
     On a different note, I've been thinking lately about comparisons and how they are not good. All to often, I find that I compare myself, my life, and my story with people around me, and this can lead to stress, anxiety, and doubt. You see, I started to realize that I was comparing my faith, my walk with God, my decisions and so forth against other people. But the tricky thing was that I would compare it against what I thought the other person's faith, walk, and choices were and what I thought their thoughts on the subject must be. So really, I was comparing myself against what I thought others must be thinking/feeling/believing, not necessarily against what they actually were(if that makes any sense). Do this and you will quickly find yourself in a sticky, brain mess that doesn't seem to have an exit.
     Now the Bible has a thing or two to say about not judging others, but I think it might be just as important to not compare with others. Either it will make us feel hopelessly inadequate, give us a big head, or just plain confuse us. Instead, we should forget whether or not we match up with the those around us and rather strive to compare our lives, faith, walk, and decisions agains the Word of God.
     Happy Beach Week!
"In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer." ~Albert Camus

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