Why Our Lens Matters (& How to Choose a Grateful One)
Living a life of gratitude is more about having the right lens than the right list.
The lens I chose
Eight years ago when we stepped into our new townhome, I had a long list of things to be grateful for. It was:
- an affordable place to live in San Diego (partially provided by my husband’s job)
- located in a community with other young families
- big enough for our growing family
- practically brand new
Even though I carried this list in my heart, this is what I saw:
- a scratchy carpet
- a too-narrow tandem garage
- no backyard
- no natural light in the main living areas
I carried this tension for years, knowing the good but only seeing the bad.
How I adjusted my lens
Then one day as I was cleaning our entryway and the carpeted stairs that led up to our main floor, our vacuum died. I remembered that we still had a shop-vac somewhere in the garage. We hadn’t used it in several years but surely it could finish the job. I lugged it into the entryway, pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose, and set out to finish the chore I had started. I plugged it in and flipped the switch.
*Poof* A giant cloud of dust and old pet hair shot out of the side vent, coating our entryway with a thin layer of gray.
With a sigh, I brought the whole thing outside and cleaned out the filter before going back in to clean the extra mess. I plugged it in and flipped the switch again. A tiny cloud of dust shot into the air. This time I just vacuumed over it and finished the stairs.
I brought the trash outside and marveled at how dark it had become at only four in the afternoon. As I walked toward the dumpster, I had a thought that stopped me in my tracks: it’s dusty out here. How could it be dusty outside? I looked to my right, and the bushes looked dusty. I looked to my left and the neighbor’s patio looked dusty. I’m embarrassed to admit how long it took me to figure out that the cloud of dust from the shop-vac had covered my glasses. No wonder everything looked gray and dirty!
We see what we focus on
Our ability to live a life of gratitude depends on the lens we’re using. When we focus on the dust, that’s all we’ll see!
Colossians 4:2 says: “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”
There’s a reason that watchfulness and thankfulness go hand in hand: we see what we’re looking for.
It’s so easy to choose a different lens through which to see our lives. The lens of discontentment causes us to look around and see what we don’t have; it makes us want more or better and we can fall into the trap of orienting our whole lives towards getting it. The lens of comparison causes us to look around and take stock of what others have; envy takes root and often our sense of self-worth suffers. The lens of fear makes us see everything as a threat and places our own personal comfort and security over the well-being of others; it makes us live in a constant state of anxiety.
The lens through which we view our life matters because we will find what we’re looking for. The day I realized that I couldn’t see past the dust on my glasses, I had a choice to make: to focus on what made me unhappy or to look through the lens of gratitude.
Which lens are you looking through today?
Meet Sarah Butterfield
Sarah K. Butterfield is the author of Around the Clock Mom: Make the Most of Your God-Given Time. She has a heart for empowering women to grow in their faith and be intentional with their time. She and her husband and two boys live in San Diego, where she loves the first sip of coffee, getting lost in a book, and overindulging in ice cream. You can follow her writing and check out the free resources available for download on her website.
Where to find her . . .
Begin Within is a series to inspire a year-round lifestyle of gratitude that will impact not only your own life, but the lives of your neighbors as well. Gratitude is a theme we talk about often around here because it ties so closely into other missional living rhythms. Practicing gratitude reminds to keep our hearts soft and expectant and our eyes open. Therefore, the more we embrace gratitude, the easier it becomes to truly see our neighbors and where we can join what God is already doing in our neighborhoods.
My vision for this gratitude series is to help others embrace a year-round lifestyle of gratitude that will impact not only their own life, but the lives of their neighbors as well.
If you would like to contribute to Begin Within, you can find the submission guidelines here.
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If you long for deep, meaningful relationships, this is for you!
Creating Ripples
If you would like to cultivate rhythms in addition to gratitude that will empower you live on mission in your neighborhood, check out Cultivating a Missional Life: A 30-Day Devotional to Gently Help You Open Your Heart, Home, and Life to Your Neighbors. This small book will help you make a big impact in your neighborhood as you learn to let missional living flow from the inside out. Get the 30-day missional living challenge free when you purchase the book.
