Focus and Perspective

I have several friends going through different kinds of rough patches right now. Sometimes I get frustrated because I want them to focus on all the things that they have going for them. There are a lot of bad things in the world, and thank goodness most of my friends and family are healthy, have jobs, and have a nice place to go home to at the end of the day. While thinking about how some people in my life need to refocus, I caught myself needing a new perspective on something myself.

Eli and Jax are energetic little boys. Brian and I spend A LOT of our time herding them. Most days we are flying from one place to the next and don't have time for wrangling. I catch myself wishing that they would be immediatly obediant (not likely for a 4 and 3 year old), and do what I ask when I ask it all the time. Then a funny thing happened. I realized that much of the time when we are herding them or trying to convince them to do what we want them to do, they are having the time of their lives. Either they have fun with the herding, chasing, and racing us around, OR they are having fun with an activity we are trying to pull them away from. At first all I noticed was the running, chasing, and racing... then with a new perspective I realized that the kids are having the time of their life in those moments. Racing mom to the car, or being chased to the bathroom is FUN for them. I'm so thankful that sometimes my biggest frustration is that my boys are already living life to its fullest and still stop to smell the roses... even if we don't quite have time for rose sniffing. In the end what does being late all the time really matter if you are happy when you get where you are going?