Finding Beauty

There was this couple that moved into a new neighborhood. Early one morning while they were eating, the lady looked out the window and saw the neighbor hanging her wash out on the line to dry. She noticed that the wash was so dirty and so dingy. She said to her husband, "That neighbor doesn´t know how to wash. Her clothes aren´t clean. I wonder if she even uses detergent." Day after day, she made these same comments. "I can´t believe she lets her family wear those dirty, dingy clothes."

Several weeks later, she looked out that window, and the clothes were just as bright and clean and beautiful as could be. She was so surprised. She called her husband and said, "Honey, look! The lady finally learned how to wash. I wonder what happened?”  The husband smiled and said, "Honey, I got up early this morning and cleaned our window.”

The problem was not that the neighbor had dirty laundry. The problem was the window she was looking through was not clean. She was seeing everything through a tainted filter.

It´s the same way within beauty; you only see the scratch in the floor and never the amazing house; if you never see what your loved one does right and only what they do wrong, then my encouragement to you is to clean your window. The problem is not with your loved one. It´s an internal issue.

In life, no matter how much good there is, you can always find something bad if you look for it.

You see, you can train yourself to see strengths or you can train yourself to see weaknesses. 

Focusing on good qualities or you can focus on what you don’t like and magnify the things that bother you.

Some people have become so critically minded that no matter what the other one does, it’s not going to be right. They’ve forgotten the reasons they fell in love in the first place.  – Joel Osteen

Finding beauty in frustrating circumstances takes heart effort. 

Sometimes it comes too easy for me ... sometimes I struggle and it takes a gentle reminder.

Today, I'm thankful for my gentle reminder.