Look for the Good

Years ago back before Denis and I were parents and when we lived in Ohio we went to the park on St. Patrick’s Day. It was one of those early spring days where the temperature was warm and it was nice to be outside again after a long winter. While we were at the park we decided to look for a four-leaf clover.  With lots of patience and some time Denis finally found the first one, then I found one and then it continued to spiral.  In the course of over an hour we had found over 30 four-leaf clovers.  When we first started looking it seemed impossible.  Every single clover we looked at had three leaves.  It seems pointless and a bit silly to keep trying to look.  But then once we each had found our own four-leaf clover it’s as though our vision was zeroed in on now trying to only focus on and find clovers that had those thrilling four leaves. Today we got to go looking for four-leaf clovers with Olivia and she found her first one on her own. Now she understands the thrill of it all too. After so much searching you finally find what you're looking for.

They say that for every 5,000 clovers there’s one four-leaf clover.  Which feels about right, it really does take some patience and persistence to find the rare ones. 

Life can sometimes feel like trying to find a four-leaf clover.  We’re surrounded by our own challenges, let alone the challenges that others in our family, friend, community and world are facing.  It can feel like you’re looking into patches of clovers with nothing but bad news and negativity.  You know you need to try to focus on the good, but it feels impossible at times.  May I encourage you to be patient and persistent.  With God’s help you can find the good even though it might at first seem rare.  Then once you start to notice the good it might be all that you can see and focus on.  It reminds me of Philippians 4:8:

So when you’re tempted to simply sit and stare at your normal patch of shamrocks that seem to keep your mind fixed on what’s going wrong, shift yourself over to focusing on what God calls us to focus on.  Pray and ask God to show you all the goodness that He’s surrounded you with.  Soon I’m sure you’ll find, just like we did, that all you can see and focus on is the good stuff.