When I uploaded pictures tonight, I found about ten images like this.  Miss E was playing with my camera a few days ago, and apparently she needed the perfect shot of her precious ballet slippers.

So, I don’t know if I’m the only one, but I often find myself thinking along these lines: ”Everything in my life would be perfect if it weren’t for just this one thing.”

Anybody else?

I think “I would have an amazing life, if only this wasn’t in the way.” 

Sometimes it’s just a fleeting thought.  Sometimes I dwell on it a little too much.  And sometimes it completely steals all my joy.

I was thinking along these lines the other day, when I had a little light-bulb moment.

All thanks to Miss E.

She’s the middle child.  She’s beautiful, sweet, funny, and just so wonderful.

BUT, she whines.

A LOT.

It’s not her fault.  I whine a little.  And her Auntie whines a lot, and though I hate to admit it, I can’t deny the reality that it appears to be genetic.

She is a total whiner.  Any time she doesn’t get what she wants. 

Anytime what she gets isn’t exactly how she wants it. 

And at least half of the rest of the time, for no reason at all. 

Her little voice takes that awful pinched tone and her words slur together into a completely uninteligible explosion that makes you want to plug your ears and “la la la” until it’s over.

It’s awful.

It makes hombre and I feel crazy.

And yet, we love her.  We love her more than we can even express. 

I’ll admit when we are faced with the whining in it’s fullest intensity, we wonder how we will survive.

Then we step back and remember that we love her.  She is beautiful.  She is sweet.  She is fun and silly and smart and healthy.  And she loves Jesus with all of her little heart.

And when we focus on the whining, all we’re really doing is missing out on this amazing little person.  She’s a gift, right there for us to enjoy, and we miss it by focusing on the one flaw.

I know none of us need a news flash that life isn’t perfect. 

But I needed a little reminder.  Stop resting your happiness on perfection.  And stop letting one flaw take your eyes off of the abundance of gifts right before your eyes. 

We all have our one thing that we’d like to push out of our way, so we can just enjoy our lives. 

But honestly, I’m tired of waiting. 

I want to enjoy my life today.