A few years ago, my oldest daughter Chloe bought me a sticker. I don’t think anyone had given me a sticker since elementary school, but this one meant a lot. I love photography and I need little tangible reminders to maintain perspective. This sticker hit that sweet spot.
Focus On the Good Stuff. I’ve thought off and on about starting a little thread of “that’s the good stuff” observations and today seems like a good day to start. Maybe it will help you focus on the good stuff too. It’s all around us if we’ll slow down long enough to notice. The more we notice, the more we’ll focus, appreciate, and maybe even imitate.
A while back, Shelly and our three daughters were in a local restaurant for lunch. They beat the typical lunch crowd, but as they were seated, the lone waitress–let’s call her Trish–asked for their patience in advance. The restaurant was severely short-staffed and the second scheduled waitress had called in sick. Whatever the crowd, Trish was going to be flying solo.
She did an admirable job, but as the crowd arrived, between the drink orders, the food orders, the refills, the side requests, the followup requests, and trying to clear the vacated tables all on her own before another round of lunch-seekers arrived, it didn’t take long for Trish to get overwhelmed.
Seated not far away was an elderly man. The girls had noticed that he couldn’t really stand up straight when he walked in. His shuffle was slow wherever and whenever he went. He dined alone. As he wrapped up his meal and waited patiently to pay his check, more than one grumbler could be heard from various corners of the restaurant about how slow the service was, how long the wait had been for a simple refill, and whether or not anyone was going to come along and clean the used tables, now full of abandoned scraps. As Trish made her hurried way back to the kitchen, she had tears in her eyes.
That’s when the lone, bent-over, elderly man stood up, shuffled over to the closest vacated table, and started cleaning it up. When Trish emerged, somewhat shocked, he asked if it would be okay to slowly carry the used cups and dirty dishes, as quickly as he could, over to the little shelf by the kitchen door to make life a little easier on Trish. He asked for cleaning solution and whatever rag she would typically use to wipe down the tables. He wasn’t fast, he wasn’t getting paid, he’d come into the restaurant that day to be served, but Trish was understandably flustered and he could offer a little bit of help. So he did. And without a word, he inspired a couple other diners to pitch-in as well.
Oddly enough, there didn’t seem to be as many grumblers over the next few minutes.
That’s the good stuff.
Brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Phil 4:8)
Where have you noticed the good stuff lately?