It is a fact in this day and age, that social media gets us all wrapped up from time to time and takes us down rabbit holes, to where we cannot even remember what we started looking at to begin with. I saw a short diddly on social media not too long ago that was listing the top 10 to 15 items of what makes men think that women are old. There were a variety of comments about how she dresses and her posture, but there was one that stood out to me above the others. It was. “If a woman is always fussing and complaining, it makes her seem much older than if she is content, happy and has a bubbly personality.” This is remarkably interesting to say the least, since we know that, men, are known to be attracted to women visually, and women are attracted to men emotionally.
With this being noted, you can look around you, and maybe even in the mirror, and see people who are in a long term, loving relationship, who are just not raving beauties. They are also not all in their twenties or thirties either for that matter, nor are they skin and bone with a coca cola bottle figure. Therefore, this mention of personality and contentment may have some merit after all. The bottom line is that physical attraction is only the initial introduction and factor that gets the other person’s attention and sparks their interest. If they like what they see and feel a connection, they may then choose to pursue the relationship further. This is where the personality comes into the equation. There is a lot to be said in favor of a good attitude, and a thankful mindset and demeanor.
If we ever start thinking that our lives are awful and that everything that can go wrong is going wrong, instead of fussing and complaining incessantly, we should look around us and we will be able to readily see how blessed we are in just a few short moments. I live in a small town in Tennessee and recently had to travel for work to a larger city. The traffic was horrific, forcing the commuters to leave their houses hours ahead of time just to make it to work on time. This in turn happens again at the end of the day, trying to make it home to their families, even if the actual distance is not that far. Lord forbid there would be an accident on any given day, this could add additional time of sitting waiting in traffic. It made me stop and contemplate that maybe living in a small town, with basically no traffic and working from home, was not that bad after all.
Another thought occurred to me recently while I was working on my computer, that we have so many things that we can copy and paste with the click of a button that will allow us to have entire paragraphs already written for us, or manuals at our fingertips, only having to change a word here or there to make the document fit our circumstances. We are often singing the ‘poor pitiful me’ song, about having to do so much work, when looking back to the days of pencil and paper, the same amount of work would have taken days and weeks longer to accomplish. How sad for us. If you would research back to the days of scribes in scripture, they had to copy every page by hand on papyrus paper, with a quill, and inkwell. Yes, the finished product would turn out astonishing with their beautiful handwriting; however, if they made just one mistake, the entire page was considered ruined, and they would have to begin again. Starting over, was just a part of a scribe’s life, until they developed the skill of accuracy. It was arduous and stressful. Perhaps, in light of this, having typewriters or computers, and having the Bible in its printed form, in almost every language in the world, is not so bad after all.
As children, we would take weekly trips to the Public Library to check out our favorite book series. We also had the opportunity to check out books from the school library. In addition to these two treasure troves, we had second-hand bookstores where we could buy used books, or at the Book Exchange we could trade our old books for someone else’s old book that we had not yet read. I grew up in South Africa, where reading was the favorite pastime, since there was no television until around 1979, when I was leaving the country to return to the United States. Having a book in our hands then was equivalent to the young people with their cellphones today. We hardly wanted to put them down, especially once the story was at the most strategic part of the plot. Reading was captivating and those are good memories; however, the unique difference between cellphones and books is that this generation has knowledge at their fingertips. Anything they want to know; they can research it without delay and find an answer. We would be tough out of luck and had to wait until our next trip to the library to check out a book that would give us the information we had wanted or needed days before. Even when I married my husband forty two years ago, he was still relying on books from the library to help him fix cars or learn about household maintenance. So, I guess, having the internet and cellphones is not that bad after all.
I work for the State, and for the most part, with only a few exceptions in my department, we work seven and a half hours a day. Overtime is unheard of unless a special project is called, and the allotted overtime is approved ahead of time. Many of the employees, in fact most of them, are working from home now; therefore, we do not have to be on the go those additional hours of driving time, which for some could make a ten to twelve hour day. Working from home means you can literally get out of bed, have your cup of coffee, and turn on the computer and start working. Though many might work in their pajamas, call me old fashioned, but I personally must make sure I am presentable before I start my work day. At the end of the day, the moment we log off the computer, we are clocked out of work and begin our evening chores or activities at home with our families. I think we would have to mention that surely this life, work, and circumstance, is not that bad after all.
I can recall seeing good ole cowboy movies back in the day where the farmer was hooked to a harnessed horse on a handheld plough, forging rows to plant their crops in. They were just trying to make a living, put food on their tables and survive as a family. They would be doing this and other farm related chores from sun up to sun down. It was hard, manual labor. Now in rural areas we can see farmland that has large pieces of machinery parked everywhere, due to the industrial revolution. This brought about changes and new and improved ways of doing the same things. Though farmers still work long days, and still depend heavily upon the weather for the success or failure of their crops, they can work smarter instead of harder. They can expand their land and not have to be with their nose literally to the dirt all day long. Some of the modern equipment now has cabs attached with air conditioning as well, allowing them to get their work done in more comfort and ease. I guess having grocery stores close by our houses that are often open twenty-four-seven is not that bad after all.
There was also a day when transportation consisted of walking or riding on horseback. If you were part of a more fortunate family, you may have the luxury of riding in a buggy or carriage. Even when automobiles were first introduced, the commoners could not afford them. They were exclusive to the richer folk and not commercially manufactured in bulk as we know now. There were crude designs and ideas for automobiles using a steam engine, proposed as far back as the 1600’s, however, it was not until the late 1800’s that various, more refined, ‘Horseless Carriages’ began to emerge. Henry Ford with his Model-T in 1913 was the first to use an assembly line concept which allowed mass production and more modest costs to consumers. Now the choices of transportation including public transportation are endless. Now come rain or shine, we can get to our destination in a reasonably respectable manner. I suppose, though we have a car we may hate right now, we must admit, it may not be that bad after all.
I remember visiting my grandparents, whom I only knew briefly, for the summer in Natchitoches, Louisiana in the 1970’s. It was so hot and humid there, and they did not have any central air conditioning or heat. We would play outside dripping with sweat. As kids, we were not too familiar with air conditioning though, since we lived in South Africa where we did not have any either; however, the humidity level was a lot higher in Louisiana. In the winters there, we would all gather in our family room where the nice kerosene heater was and read or play games before bed. We would say our goodnights and rush quickly to pull the covers up to our noses and start rubbing our legs on the cold sheets to warm them up. Sometimes we would have hot water bottles that were placed in our beds ahead of time when we remembered. Once you were in bed, you did not move a muscle. I suppose, taking this into consideration, the houses we have here with air and heat, whether large or small, that may need a little facelift or renovation done, are not that bad after all.
Now that we have televisions in our homes, we can rifle through the hundreds of channels for hours and not find a thing to watch that is worth spending time or brain power on. The things we do see can be heartbreaking. Advertisements for St. Jude Children’s Hospital Cancer Research or the Shriners Hospital for Children, show testimonials that allow you to see the pain, struggle, loss, and heartache these families have been through; however, unless we have experienced a similar circumstance, we cannot fully grasp the grief they have felt when losing a loved one, no matter the age. The news reports facts of events happening in real time in our world that are more often or not tragic. Accidents, crime, or weather related tragedies are just a few. We could also have friends or family who are going through rough times, financially, emotionally, physically, or spiritually. Through these stories of woe that we hear and see, we should be able to see God’s blessings on our lives and realize that our life is not so bad after all.
We can read of examples in scripture of men whose lives were not always peaches and cream. Joseph was despised by his brothers and sold into slavery, lied about by Potiphar’s wife, and thrown in jail, forgotten about by the butcher and baker, and left in prison indefinitely, before he was ever raised to the position the Lord had planned for him all along. The three Hebrew boys, Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendigo were taken captive as teenagers and then subjected to a fiery furnace because of their obedience to the laws of God, before the King acknowledged that they were right. Daniel was thrown into a Den of Lions because He prayed to God and put God above the decree of the heathen king, before the king confessed that God was the only, one true God and that all should serve Him.
We are often so quick to mumble, groan, and complain about the situations we face, but thankfulness is what will lift our spirits when they are down, and allow us to see how God is moving on our behalf. If Joseph did not end up in Egypt, even though it was through the betrayal of his brothers and heartbreaking for him at the time, he would not have been able to save his people from the famine, years down the road. If the Hebrew boys were not taken into captivity and subsequently put into the furnace, the Law of the Lord that they were trying to uphold, showing that they did not bow down to idols, but only served One True God, would not have been proven to the heathen nation. Without Daniel also being taken into captivity and being tested by being put into the lion’s den, he could not have shown the king what true courage and faith was, in a power higher than himself. Going through trials and tribulations we must have faith, hold our heads high, let our words agree with our faith by offering thanksgiving.
An account seen in the New Testament that has always been fascinating to me and built my faith is found in Luke 24:13-35 that goes like this, “And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, what manner of communication are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which have come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher; And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulcher and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went, and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.”
Two disciples were embarked on the seven mile trip from Jerusalem to Emmaus when Jesus suddenly appears in their midst. There is your first clue. They were in the mulligrubs of doubt and despair. They were so distraught because their master had died. All the sermons and teachings that Jesus had given were out the window and forgotten. Where was the faith? Jesus went into their home, and broke bread with them. How many hundreds of times had he done this with them before? Were their eyes blind because Jesus wanted it to be so, or was it because of their own doubts, fears, and negativity? Jesus listened to them, showed compassion, lingered with them, and taught them, until their faith began to build, and their eyes were opened, and they realized that it had been Jesus in their midst the entire afternoon. Faith, positivity, hope, and gratefulness can give us eye opening moments into the goodness and mercies of God on our lives.
The word tells us in Hebrews 13:5, “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” 2 Corinthians 1:20 states, “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” Let us stop fussing, being old ‘fuddy-duddies,’ and let us begin showing gratitude and thanksgiving. He is with us! Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” We already know this, so let us ‘turn our frowns upside down’ and begin to show forth the joy of the Lord. We will be surprised how much better we will feel, and how much younger we will look with a smile on our face and a song in our hearts. 1 Timothy 6:6 states, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” So, stop fussing!