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"General Robbie Risner described the seven years he spent as a prisoner of war as the "essence of despair." He said, "If you could have squeezed the feeling out of the word despair, it would have come out lead-colored, dingy and dirty." What's amazing is how he survived!

He pried the cover off a floor drain in his cell and lowered his head into the opening. There, he noticed a solitary blade of grass, the only smidgeon of color in his colorless world. Calling it a 'blood transfusion for the soul', Risner began each day in prayer, lying on the floor of his cell with his head down the vent, focused on that single blade of green grass.

Jesus said, "Your eye...provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness." (Matthew 6:22-23 NLT)

What are you looking at? Each day you get to decide where you'll focus. You certainly don't have to look far to find things to complain about: war, gas prices, the economy, global warming, and crime. God gave Adam and Eve everything they needed in the Garden of Eden,, but they chose to focus on the one thing they couldn't have. He divided the Red Sea, sent signs to guide the Israelites in the wilderness and provided food so they'd never go hungry. Initially, "They...sang his praise. But...soon forgot what he had done." (Psalm 106:12-13 NLT)

Don't be like that. The Bible says, "If there is anything praiseworthy - meditate on these things." Surely you can find something to praise God for today!"

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The above is from a devotional that I read. I'm sure it spoke to you in the same simple, but profound way that it spoke to me. Living in the times that we are living in - with bad news all around us - there have never been more reasons to complain before! I like to think of myself as a "glass half full" kind of girl. Most people that know me well will agree that I am sometimes "overly" positive...well in an almost annoying way. I don't let people close to me get away with any negative comments about, well anything really!

But, I catch myself getting wrapped up in the news or the latest economic "jibberish" or "so-n-so lost their job today and they have a brand new baby to take care of" or this and that or this and that. I could go on and on. In the midst of so many things to complain about, we ALL have so many things to be praiseworthy for! Thankful for! Grateful for!

I don't know about you, but if my life is so covered up in negativity or problems that I can't find just one.single.thing to thank God for, I'd better get busy on that drain cover...gotta pry that thing off then stick my head in upsidedown and look...

...for that solitary blade of green grass.