Have you ever played around with lenses on apps like Snapchat or Instagram? You know the ones. They can soften the edges, add brighter more vibrant colors, add a little sparkle or humor to your ordinary picture.

Have you ever tried to play around with the lenses in your mind?

We look at life, normal, everyday life through a lens and yet we are often totally unaware that we are doing so. We may grumble our way through washing the dishes, complain about dirty shoes or socks laying around, get stressed about running from place to place, event to event. What if we changed the lens? What if we softened the edges? Added more vibrancy? Looked for the blessings, lessons, or humor in situations?

I have recently been working around the house, doing some painting and updating. I painted our upstairs hallway and one of the projects tied to this that really was weighing me down was reframing and rehanging the pictures of my children that line that hallway. The pictures start with their hospital picture and end in a cluster of high school senior pictures. Over the years frames were purchased as pictures came along and it was a crazy mix of colors and sizes. I decided it was time to make it more uniform, sleek. Thinking about rehanging 50+ pictures neatly was completely overwhelming me....until the moment I changed my lens. I looked at that beautiful span of pictures covering 18 years of each child's life and I was grateful, so so grateful I had 18 years worth of pictures to hang. My pictures didn't end abruptly at age 2, 7, 10. I thought of those families that never had that hospital picture to hang, or the ones whose lives were forever changed, whose line of pictures stopped because of illness, accident or violence. With every nail I pound and every picture I hang, my lens will reflect gratitude. I will cherish each year, each memory and feel blessed knowing that I could continue adding to that line of pictures.

Funny things can happen when you change the lens. I experimented with this today. Instead of being stressed about mowing the lawn, a 1+ hour task, I thought about how grateful I am to be surrounded by nature- to have fresh air to breath, no other house in sight. As I started mowing, there, in my path, stood a beautiful deer. Then I saw the cutest baby bunny. Then, the deer again...as she moved field to field so did I. Bottom line- nature, beautiful nature was right there for me to love and appreciate. The dreaded task was now a blessing as I rode, sang, and talked to the animals. (Yes- you can laugh at that image 😂)

So- the next time you are feeling stressed, anxious, angry...do yourself a favor...Change The Lens.