Life is a Bed of Roses

I love roses. I really do.

Bring me a few, deep red roses and some dark chocolate, and you’ve pretty much stolen my heart. ~wink~

I think roses are one of the most beautiful flowers. They are delicate, velvety, smooth, rich, and intricately woven… sometimes they are absolutely breathtaking, in my humble opinion.

However, roses have a very unique feature – thorns. Ouch! Get your finger on one of those lovelies, and you have momentarily forgotten about the beauty you just adored.

Life is just like those roses. Life is full of so much beauty, so much good, so much blessing, yet it is also covered with a smattering of thorns – trials, heartaches, grief, pain, sin, and all sorts of disappointments.

The key to living a full, joyful life is for us to focus on the roses and their beauty rather than the thorns.

Life will always be a mixed bag – containing wonderful goodness and yucky messes. We can choose to focus on the goodness or abide in the messes.

If you are honest with yourself about your life, I am sure you can see that you are truly blessed. We have bounty galore, but oftentimes the difficulty of life snuffs out the remembrance and appreciation of that bounty, and our minds and hearts get stuck in the pit.

Will you choose beauty with me?

Will you choose thankfulness with me?

Will you choose joy with me?

It’s going to be work – a continual choice.

• We’re going to have to set our minds on good things, think positively, and hope for the best.
• We’re going to have to choose to leave the past behind, live the moment, and look forward to the future.
• We’re going to have to make some effort, not be lazy, and live life proactively!

Are you with me?

If you forget how good of a life you have, read this post I wrote a few years ago and start lovin’ your good life.

May the Lord richly bless you with the abundant grace to live life wholeheartedly, not giving in or giving up, cherishing the great beauty in your life.