$20 vs Mud

That's my friend, Renee. On New Year's Eve she found $20 on the ground. She posted the photo to social media with the declaration, "2015 is going to be a great year!" Friends chimed in with words of congratulation and agreement. I asked her (not trying to be a pessimist), "Since you found it before midnight, are you sure it isn't an exclamation point on the end of a good year?" She poo-poo'ed me.

Whether it's hitting every light on the way into work or getting a run in our tights, we often let one incident set the tone and our level of expectation for a day or sadly, even a year. It's great if we allow this to make us optimistic and hopeful, but I think more often than not, we tend to focus on the negative.

Renee thought that $20 was just the first in what would surely be a year of good things, but what if she had,instead, at the same spot on the sidewalk, gotten splashed with mud by a passing car? Is 2015 destined to be rotten?

I am guilty of doing the backwards version of this. 2014 was a rough year for me and it all started on January 1st. New Year's Day. 3:30pm. So as the year drew to a close, I said more than a few times, "I'm ready for this year to be over" as if the calendar determines how things will unfold.

The days, months and years will unfold how we allow them to. God is continually molding and shaping our lives and our hearts. If we have a hardness, like dry clay, what can He do with us? Holding on to an attitude of, "Today is going to be a bad day" or "This month is just awful. I can't wait for it to be over." will put up a wall where God might want to come in. We could miss out on opportunities to see $20 on the ground or silver linings on the clouds. So here's to 2015 and what each moment holds!