Atm's

 My wife and i recently are on the plane returning from Italy (if you ask her, she might claim to be Italian - and of course, who really knows????  She does love shoes and pasta and she has done at least some of her Italian language lessons on the computer!!).  It is one place we go when we just need to not think for a while - to relax and unwind and not use our brains too much!  We eat too much and joke about needing stretchy pants for the trip home!  It is really an investment of rest we have needed multiple times over the years and we are so grateful for the blessing of being able to go.

 

No matter how much you want to rest though, and how comfortable you feel in another country, you still are acutely aware of your "foreignness" - this is one of the inviting things about it for us, no cell phones (sorry if i didnt return your text message for the past few days), and a nearly complete ability to just disconnect - but this "foreignness" also requires some extra thought.  For example, the Italian people are not interested at all in having US dollars - they want Euro's, and we do not have Euro's  in the U.S.  The electrical outlets are different, everyone eats dinner between 8-10pm, many shops close still between about 130-400 or so and of course and then reopen until 7pm or so, and not all the people speak English (I know you are shocked!)

 

Because of all these foreign things about Italy, in order for us to get our rest, we need to make sure that we have money, that we are mentally prepared for the late dinner and that we have our trusty Italian phrase book with us (No, my wife is not that far along in her online course - she can say the dog eats, yellow bicycle and the man drives and car all really well).  In order to get money, the cheapest and easiest way is to use an ATM and our bank allows us to withdraw money from there with no problems.  This most recent trip, we wanted to make sure we had some money and so on the 1st day we were there,  we were looking and looking for an ATM.  We walked miles and miles and it seemed that we were just not seeing one.   In places that seemed like they should have an ATM, none.  It was super frustrating.

 

After a lot of looking, we did finally find an ATM and got our money - no problem - but i noticed something interesting afterward...

 

Once i had searched and looked for ATM's for a while, i started seeing them everywhere.  I was noticing ATM's at every corner it seemed.

 

It got me to thinking - i wonder if life is like that a little bit....

 

Like this...

 

Ever started to think about how frustrated your wife makes you in a certain area of life/marriage/parenting and then the more you think about it, the more you notice it?

 

  It has definitely happened to me (not that my wife has much to notice, because she is so wonderful - that was a close one!). 

 

Ever start thinking about how a job frustrates you to no end - how it is not what you wanted and is not what you deserve?  Then before you know it, it starts to be easier and easier to notice the crumminess of the job?

 

So many times, we start to look for something and then we begin to find it more and more and more...

 

And don't we often times find ourselves looking for the same ATM's over the course of our lives - having an easy time noticing the spouse, the job, the money, the co-worker, the house, the family?

 

Why then do we tend to look for the same types of things over and over again?

 

I suspect it has to do with how we have been programmed over our lives, partly how we were raised, partly our genetics, partly our life experiences and traumas.

 

But how then can we stop noticing the pain in the butt things in this life?  Are we to be forever trapped in the land of seeing every ATM in Italy?

 

No.  We are not trapped. 

 

The answer seems to come partly from choosing to notice other things - and from getting the God who made us involved in the day to day moments of our noticing.  It appears to not be whether we will notice something but what will we notice?

 

Choose to notice the good.  Choose to see the love.  And when you do, invite God into the moment.  And when you can't seem to, let someone who loves you know that you just can't seem to see the good anymore - all you see is ATM's - ask them to help you see.  And, talk to God about it - let Him know that you just can't seem to see the good anymore, ask Him for help - to be involved in your life.

 

Plus, it helps to be around some people who are really working hard to see the good - to notice - and trying to have God involved in their day to day lives - not weird religion - just God involved in people's lives and people caring enough to show the goodness to each other.

 

This is what we are all about at Morethanmore.  We will be hanging out this Thursday night 645-800pm at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler ave, Lafayette, and we would love to have you hang with us.  Noticing the good looks a lot like laughter, silliness, and a nice evening. 

 

We always have fantastic and free child care for kids through 5th grade and McAllister has tons of fun activities for the older kids.  We truly hope you can join us!