Count What You Have, Not What You Don't

Because that, when they knew God, they have not glorified him as God, or given thanks; but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened  [Romans 1:21]

Hey buddy,

I hope you’re doing well.

I’ve got a couple of routes around my area that I like to walk in the mornings, depending on the occasion and who I’m walking with. If it’s just me and the dog, like it was this morning, we walk through the park and then around part of the perimeter of the city-owned golf course next to it.

Here’s a picture of our “world’s most okay-est dog,” doing what he does best.

Anyway, a few years ago, I started finding golf balls laying around on the ground and for whatever reason (I don’t golf), I started picking them up. I know the reason. There is intrinsic value to a golf ball and there are enough variations to each individual one that it’s satisfying to collect them.

Forage them.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Compare the picture above to the one below

My 300+ found golf balls. Photo credit to my beautiful wife.

I’d find them in the proximity of the golf course, yes, but also just around town.

Even at work.

Some days I don’t find any.

One morning, the City had cut some foliage way back and I found 27.

Believe.

I’ve been walking more often now as part of an attempt to add one single cubit to my life and so, because of math, my odds of finding golf balls every time I walk are dropping.

What has wound up happening on more than one occasion is that I will get frustrated on the days that I don’t find any at all.

Why?

What have I contributed that I should gain?

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On Saturday, my wife and I went with our middle baby (8yo) and our little baby (24 days old at the time) to another city park where they were hosting a monarch butterfly festival. It was ‘mid’ as the youths like to say and there wasn’t a lick of shade for most of it, so we pushed through and did as much as we could, but we obviously couldn’t do everything. My 8yo got upset walking back to the car because she didn’t get to have her face painted. I get it. What I told her was that there is always something that you’re not going to be able to do and then I asked her what her favorite thing was that she did get to do. That changed the whole dynamic of the conversation.]

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Here’s a graph that I made to visualize the idea of that shift in focus to what we have instead of what we don’t have.

What we have, buddy, is two options.

We can focus on the infinite amount of things we don’t have, or the things that other people have that we want.

We can sow the ungrateful seeds of resentment, greed, fear and envy. These manifest as FOMO, substance abuse, unhealthy attachments to social media, etc.

Or we can focus on what we have already been blessed with. As the very base level, if you are alive to read this right now, buddy, that in and of itself is a blessing.

Your health, your family, your spouse, your children.

The job you hate is better than no job.

A/C on a hot day. Heat on a cold one.

Clean water.

Food on the table.

WiFi, for Pete’s sake.

I’m not saying that you and I need to be complacent, but we do need to be grateful.

Celebrate the golf balls you found, not the ones you didn’t.

What have you contributed that you should gain?

Alleluia! Give thanks to The Lord, for He is good, His faithful love is everlasting!

Thank you so much for stopping by. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to say the things that I want to say and I am equally blessed to have people who will read it.

I hope you have a great week.

Your Friend,

Dave

P.S.-