STOP.

Ferris Bueller has one of my all time favorite quotes. He says, "Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it."

There's so much truth in that. I feel like sometimes I'm so forward focused, trying so hard to "plan" that I don't enjoy where I am right now. I don't stop to enjoy the beautiful things that are right in front of me. I take the details for granted. I don't slow down long enough to say thank you, to smile at someone else, to speak a kind word. I get so wrapped up in my own business that I lose sight of what really matters. And I MISS experiencing real, abundant life as it was meant to be experienced.

It's sad how quickly and easily I can get caught up in things that just DO NOT matter. How fast I can dive inward and attempt to make my world revolve around me, to focus on what I want and when I want it. And then I find myself feeling lost, disconnected, dissatisfied with where I am. Frustrated that things aren't going MY way, according to MY plan.

You know those pictures that you can stare at for a long time and then they become something completely different? There's one - a drawing - that is of a beautiful girl and then when you look at it long enough, an ugly old lady pops out of the same image, and you see her instead of the beautiful young girl. It's like that for me sometimes. I get so locked in on this one thing, I focus so hard on it that somehow I quit looking at the big picture, I forget to STOP, I forget to look around at the things that make it what it is, and I lose sight. It becomes distorted. Something completely different. And all of the sudden, I realize I have put my faith NOT in Him, but in what I think I understand His plan for me to be, and I find that the picture I was initially looking at has become something completely different.

So the goal for today is to STOP. To take a look around. To not miss the amazing things that are right in front of me. To not miss the opportunity to experience abundant life as it was meant to be lived.