Are you looking at the clouds or the Son?

Sometimes God has blessed me, but I'm so focused on negative circumstances, or how things didn't go my way, that I fail to notice. I miss enjoying the good that is in my life.

This truth hit me again today when I was doing a Bible study for my small group. Myself and 4 other women are working through the book and study guide for Captivating by Stasi Eldridge. One of the questions was about what it means to be romanced. As I wrote about what it means to me to be romanced - to be important to someone, adored, delighted in, so important that that someone will go out of his way to do special things for me, it hit me that my husband John does all these things. I was overcome with gratitude for God's gift to me in John.

But you know what? Just three years ago, after one year of being married, I was feeling unloved and not special because this same man goes off without me for several days a few times a year to hike, back pack and commune with God in the outback of Yosemite. I was feeling like he didn't love me because he didn't want to spend time with me. So I began praying about it and soon God changed my heart. I began to see that this is something John does to keep himself healthy; that he recharges his batteries by that time alone in nature with God. I also began to see that loving another means accepting him exactly how he is and allowing him to be himself. Not every man needs to get away by himself for a few days out in nature a few times each year - but John does - and it's John that I love.

Now John has most likely always periodically bought me flowers because he knows I adore their beauty, found books he thinks I'd like in second hand stores, complimented me frequently about many things, and proclaimed that for him I'm part of the proof of Ephesians 3:20 - that God will give us blessing beyond what we can think and imagine. But three years ago I was so busy focusing on the fact that he wants to spend several days a few times each year away from me - that I didn't notice. I was so busy focusing on what was not going the way I thought it should, that I wasn't enjoying the blessings in my life.

I'm sure grateful that God got my attention and that today I can see and enjoy His goodness to me in John.

Do you ever miss out on enjoying God's blessings to you because you're focusing on the stuff in your life that isn't exactly as you want it? What helps you keep your focus on the blessing God gives you in each day?