Perspective

Well I really need to post pictures from the rest of our Christmas Celebrations. We had Christmas with my husband's family after New Years. We had fun hanging out with family and Baby K had a BLAST running around with her cousins. I will load the pictures soon. I just keep forgetting to bring the camera downstairs.


Anyway,
I saw this picture on a blog today and I thought it was fitting as an illustration of some thoughts I've had recently. I may ruffle some feathers with this one. Oh well.
I found it sad that the media & those the media interviewed New Year's eve (and the days that followed) all of the responses seemed to be something along the lines of, "Thank God 2009 and this whole last decade are OVER! They were the worst!" "Bring on 2010 - it is going to be amazing! It has to get better than last year, right?"


WHAT?! Agreed, some horrible things happened in the last 10 years. Terrorists, War, Death, Economy tanks, etc. But really the WORST ever? Maybe I feel this way because I'm sitting her in my warm heated home while it is freezing outside (and only getting colder). I wish I had Oprah's cash flow so I could buy out stores and stores of long underwear, blankets, hats, gloves, warm hotel rooms, food, and send people out to warm up the homeless and rescue them from this awful Artic cold. People are on hard times, no jobs, no money, no home. People have loved ones fighting against terror & hate. Agreed these are all horrible things. But do we let them drown out all the good things? Is life really that bad?

We still have freedom(s), we still have people who have money and food and jobs and homes who are sharing with others. Most of us are living on less than before but on the other hand most of us are not hoping against hope we survive living on nothing. Most people in America can find clean water to drink. Food to eat (even if it's not your choice of food, it's food). Most of us have shoes, even if they have holes in them, still they are shoes.
Most important, no one is telling us we can't worship Jesus. No one is stopping us from trusting God to provide for us. Most of us have someone who loves us, who shares their possessions or time or talents with us. I'm confident that as a whole, our 2009, even our past decade, most of us have had it better than the majority of the human race.


So my question is, why are most of us ungrateful for what we did have and only looking on to what we might have in the near future? Why are we so entitled to have a better 2010?
I am looking forward to what good things God has planned for 2010. I love stories and experiences of reconciliation, repentance, hope, love, joy, peace, life, provision, etc. I hope when the bad things come (because they will) that God gives me eyes to see what I do have and that my heart & mind have the strength to believe that's enough.