I heard a story of a grandmother who was babysitting her grandson and he ask her if he could take off his shoes and socks, and she wave him permission. The socks were ordinary, black old socks, they we not pretty; they had been washed often and were faded. They were not expensive, they were not designer socks, they were plain old little boy’s socks. When he took off the socks he said to her, “isn’t they pretty socks?” Now, the socks were not pretty, but that’s the way he saw them, he saw beauty in them. Out the goodness of his heart, he saw the beauty of the faded socks.  This story made think about how we adults see things. We miss the beauty of things, of people because we forgot simplicity; we created a high standard for everything. We adults can do a much better job of living a daily lives by seeing the good in people and things?  How much better we will be with Jesus living in us seeing things that were good and fine in others, instead of focusing on the negative things. We have to be like a child, Jesus says. We will be able to see the beauty if we become like a child, innocent, lovely, looking for the good, smiling, happy with what we get, really if we go back to simplicity.

Merciful Lord, may our lives be filled with Your outflowing love for others. Father, thank you showing us this simple example to make us realized the simplicity of things. We choose to fix our thoughts on the good things in others, to obey your words today, Lord God. Thank you for helping us, guiding us to dwell on the fine things you have created in others, so we can see the good things in them through Your eyes of love.

Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life. —Proverbs 4:23