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New Article: Seeing What You Have

 

               Richard Griffin, who for many years served as the Queen’s Personal Protection Officer, told this story about her.

               The Queen spent the summers in Scotland at Balmoral Castle where she enjoyed hiking in the nearby hills.   One day, she and Richard met a couple from America.  They exchanged greetings and the tourists began to talk about their trip and how much they were enjoying Scotland.  Eventually, one of them asked the Queen, “Where do you live?”  She replied, “In London.  However, I have a holiday home just over the hills”.  One of the tourists then said, “Well, if you come up here in the summer, you must have met the Queen”.  Elizabeth replied, “No I haven’t, but Richard meets her regularly”.

               Upon hearing that, the visitors asked him what she was like.  He responded, “Well, she can be very cantankerous at times, but she has a lovely sense of humour”.  The tourists were so excited to meet someone who knew the Queen that they asked if they could take his picture.  Then, Richard took the camera, and they got a shot with Elizabeth as well.  After they left, the Queen said, “I would love to be a fly on the wall when he shows those photos to his friends, and someone tells him who I am”.

                 I am not unlike those tourists.  I often do not see what is right in front of me.  The challenge, always, is to recognize what you have.  For example, in Romans 15:13 Paul prays “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”.  Things would look different to me if I saw them through the lens of hope, joy, peace, trust, and the Spirit’s power.

               Philippians 2:1, states that “Christ encourages you, and his love comforts you. God's Spirit unites you, and you are concerned for others”.  We often look for encouragement, comfort, fellowship, care, peace, and joy in the wrong places when all those things and more are given to us by our heavenly father.

               It is easy to overlook what is right in front of us.  It is easy to see what we lack rather than what we have.

               May we have eyes to see the abundant blessings of God.

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