From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry. Jonah 2: 1-2
I love the opportunity to be outside. We have a picnic table out the back that allows us to eat meals there, do schoolwork, or even nap. Yes, I’ve been found napping on the table. We’ve run into a few problems with this setup though. Unless we’re armed with towels, it’s very wet in the morning and doesn’t dry off until the sun is shining brightly around 11:00 in that area. By that time, it can get extremely hot because the table is sitting on rocks that radiate the heat, making it feel even hotter. Plus, the umbrella tends to house more wasps than keeps us cool.
I was thinking how we could fix the problem without putting money into building a gazebo or pergola. The idea of putting up a sun shade sail came to mind, but I’d have to order that. It dawned on me that we had a type of screen house that was to keep the bugs away or provide shelter from rain when camping. We hadn’t opened it up in years, but why not?
It wasn’t quite as I remembered. It was huge! It provided plenty of shade, and our picnic table fit under it with lots of room to spare. That was great! I sort of felt like I was sitting in a tent though, making it a little stuffy. I had a way to fix that. I included a box fan in our outdoor oasis. Problem solved!
How wonderful to be able to go out there and not get soaked when we sat down with our breakfast. We could even enjoy a fire while getting some relief from the sun. I know…fires are to keep you warm or cook over. I need them a little more often! We even spent many evenings using the picnic table for playing games, yet something wasn’t quite right.
Even though I was able to listen to the birds and be outside, it was pretty dark at the table, and I wasn’t able to see very clearly. When we set up our shelter, we figured the openings were best on the sides by the fire pit and the door. We keep those sides opened, but it’s all screen in the front looking into the woods with big, solid panels blocking part of the view. That screen starts messing with my eyes!
The clarity of the view when peaking out the side without the screen was so much better than trying to look through a maze of black lines. It seemed brighter, crisper, and a whole lot more beautiful. I was missing that from the front. I solved one problem while taking away one of the reasons for wanting to be outside to begin with.
We tend to want everything perfect. My screen house wasn’t. Does that mean it was a failure? No! It simply means that I needed to change my view. I needed to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative whether I turn the opening to the front or focused on getting to be outside when otherwise I wouldn’t be.
Did you recognize the line about accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative? I was told that Aretha Franklin had some powerful messages in the songs she sang, and I needed to go back and listen to what she was saying. I certainly have belted out a few of them myself around the house, but I didn’t remember this song that was so popular by many different artists. The lyrics were written by Johnny Mercer. Ms. Franklin recorded “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive” on her 1962 album. If only we’d follow this advice, it would create a whole lot more R-E-S-P-E-C-T for one another!
I challenge you to look up the lyrics to that awesome song and do what it tells us Jonah and Noah did when everything looked so dark. Accentuate…wait that just doesn’t seem right…ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive, e-lim-i-nate the negative! Seriously, latch on to the affirmative, don’t mess with mister in-between, spread joy up to the maximum, bring gloom down to the minimum, and have faith or pandemonium is liable to walk upon the scene!
Let’s stop looking at what’s wrong and start looking at what’s right in our situations, in ourselves, in other people, and in the world. I guarantee a whole lot more brightness will be seen!
