"Is focusing on my pain and what I have lost stealing my joy?"

Today's Precious Prodigal post is at = http://bit.ly/1tWHBRU "Is focusing on my pain and what I have lost stealing my joy?" #danceintherain #joy Like what you see? Please "Like" us on Facebook a

John 15:11 "These things have I spoken unto you…that your joy might be full."

They’ve finally done it! They’ve made a movie about “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.” Alexander’s terrible day included waking up with gum in his hair and not getting a prize in his cereal. And there were several other “major” catastrophes that happened on his “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.” None of those things were really catastrophes, of course. They were trivial things that are part of every day frustrations.

The things that are making us crazy are anything but trivial. When our prodigals are acting out, we have plenty to be worried about besides not finding a prize in our cereal. And sometimes we can get so caught up in what’s happening that we forget that our problems are only a part of our lives and not the whole. If we’re not careful, we will, like Alexander, let our circumstances consume us and completely ruin our day.

Several years ago it was my privilege to live in Munich, Germany when my husband was in the military. I loved almost everything about Munich, and I still think it’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world. However, don’t be misled by travel brochures showing the brilliant sunshine on the snow and fields of Munich. The weather there is awful.

On a list of European cities, Munich ranked the 3rd wettest (38” yearly compared to 36” in Washington state), 4th for thunderstorms, 4th for days below freezing, 7th most humid, and 10th foggiest. The chances of some kind of precipitation vary from a low (a low?) of 56% to a high of 73%. Want to buy a ticket yet? Bring along an umbrella and a warm jacket because it also ranks second as the city with the most variety. And those frequent changes in weather make forecasting difficult if not impossible.

I don’t like the rain, the cold, or the variety…not at all. However, if I had let Munich’s weather keep me indoors, I would have missed seeing Neuschwanstein, that breathtaking castle Walt Disney patterned his “Cinderella Castle” after. I also would have missed Marienplatz and the beautiful 100-year-old carillon called the Glockenspiel with its 32 life-sized figures. I wouldn’t have eaten sizzling wurst sausages from a corner stand or seen the glorious Alps from a mountaintop and so much more.

When we love a prodigal, our lives are almost certainly full of rainy days and more than a few thunderstorms. But it’s also full of beautiful things that God has given us. I’m not suggesting we should pretend everything is wonderful when it isn’t.

However, the fact that we have a prodigal isn’t our whole life…it’s only a part of it. There’s beauty and joy in our lives as well. And if we choose to stay inside and focus only on our pain, we can’t blame anyone but ourselves when we have no joy.

Challenge for Today: What might happen if we, just for today, looked for the beauty and joy in our lives instead of focusing only on our pain?