This past weekend Tovah and I attended the Philadelphia Flower Show. It’s a big deal each year and people come from all over to see it. It’s an event that generates extra revenue for the city. Hotel bookings are up, there’s an increase in the sightseeing tours, downtown shopping and restaurant business. The city of Philadelphia gets very excited about the annual flower show. There’s even a Black Tie event the night before it opens.
Each year the flower show is vigorously advertised to the point you are enticed to think about going. The tickets are pricey and might not fit into the budget of a large family, but that doesn’t stop you from wanting to be a part of it, especially if you live in the city. With Tovah leaving for college in August, she thought it would be nice for us to go this year since she has never been. God willing this time next year she will be away at school and unable to attend. So, we went!
As you can see from today’s picture, it was beautiful! But, I found it to be super crowded and in general the people were rude. There was a lot of pushing and shoving to get in front to take pictures. When I would say “Excuse me” to get by, often the person didn’t move or half moved. One woman backed into Tovah almost knocking her over and didn’t even apologize. I found myself praying because I really wanted to let her have it, for being so ignorant. But then we started running into people who were friendly…and others who were at least more civil. We even had someone offer to take a picture of us and we retuned the favor. All-in-all it was a nice time, but the day itself was great because Tovah and I went to lunch afterward and really had a good time.
My Facebook post later that day was “My feet are tired!! Flower show was nice except for ALL the rude people!! Will post pics tomorrow....need a nap! :).” Well, this prompted comments from friends who had also attended. They loved it! In fact one person had also been there Saturday. She had such a good time and found the people to be so friendly, that she questioned (in jest) if we were at the same place.
This made me think about how living in the Kingdom of God can sometimes be like that. All of us have the same things available to us through the Blood of the Messiah, yet we see things so differently. Our Bibles say the same things, yet we don’t read things the same or believe them the same. How can that be?
Well, just like the flower show, my focus became “how rude" the crowd was because that was what I was hit with first thing. It took prayer and eventually running into people who were more gracious for my focus to be directed more on the beauty of the flowers and exhibits than the people. I think it is the same in the Kingdom of God. It all depends on our attitudes and focus.
There are so many of us today who will live an ordinary day. We will not experience any emergencies, bad news, illnesses or tragedies. We will just have a day like any other day without incidence. But if a survey were taken on how our day was—it would be hard to believe that we all serve the same God, read the same Bibles and have the same instructions for living life. Some of us would be grateful and talk about the goodness of the Lord for such a fine day. Others would complain that it rained and they hate the rain. We would have to listen to story after story of the “pain in the butt” boss, or how my husband couldn’t even make up the bed, so that started my day off on the wrong foot. What about the fact that it’s “Monday” and so many of us just hate Monday and wish we could skip over it?
I could have let the rudeness of others spoil my day on Saturday and wasted my money, but I thank God for prayer and His understanding. The same goes for today; we can miss the many blessing interwoven throughout our day if we focus on those things that can be a hindrance or we can purpose to see all the beauty that lies before us.
Sisters…enjoy your day with a heart of appreciation and gratitude! Don’t sweat the small stuff or the indifference or rudeness of others.
Love & Hugs
Ponnie
See you tomorrow!
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