Seeing Beyond Leftovers: Recognizing God's Blessings

This morning, I read Genesis 13. In this chapter, there is a conflict between Abram's and Lot's men. As a result, Abram and Lot decide to part ways. Abram gives Lot the first choice of land, and Lot selects the land that appears most appealing.

Genesis 13:10 states - "Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

Lot selfishly chose what seemed best, unaware that he was setting himself up for significant loss, failure, and heartache, as shown in Genesis 19.

Abram could have felt resentful and allowed this "loss" of prime land to make him bitter and angry with God. He might have thought, "God, I followed your command and made this difficult journey here. Now, I'm trying to live selflessly, and you let him take all the best land. I'm left with the remnants."

However, God knew what lay ahead and had Abram exactly where He wanted him—in a place of blessing and safety.

With God, even the "leftovers" are superior to anything the world offers without Him.

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This last day of winter felt very Springlike! And the play outside was all about the dirt.

Filling containers with dirt

Cooking up some good recipes with the dirt

Eating (pretending) the dirt

Our happy supervisor

Today is national poultry day so we learned and sang about chickens.

Life Cycle of a Chicken

And of course we get to see the real chickens every day.

We also learned about nurses and the important work they do.

I've been slowly reading this book that Chris bought me for my birthday. It's a book that I need to read when it's quiet, and I like to have a notebook and pen to make notes while I read. I had a few minutes today to read and thought I would share a little here.

"Hamartia was originally an archery term, and it meant to miss the mark or target. There are many ways that a target can be missed. Frequently, in my clinical practice - and in my personal life - I observed that people did not get what they needed (or, equally importantly perhaps, what they wanted: because they never made it clear to themselves or others what that was. It is impossible to hit a target, after all, unless you aim at it. In keeping with this: People are more commonly upset by what they did not even try to do than by the errors they actively committed while engaging with the world. At least, if you misstep while doing something, you can learn from doing it wrong. But to remain passive in the face of life, even if you excuse your inaction as a means of avoiding error - that is a major mistake. As the great blues musician Tom Waits insists (in his song "A little Rain"): "You must risk something that matters." Pgs 114-115

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I didn't get any pictures posted yesterday so I'm posting a few of them today.