wrinkled sheets

I am having company this weekend.  So, as usual I am running around a few hours before they get here trying to make sure the house is clean and presentable.  I began to make up our bed and realized that I was a little more than unhappy about the way those sheets looked.  I folded the covers back and stood at the edge looking at the wrinkles.  I just couldn't be happy with the way it looked. 

I noticed that I started to get a little negative about everything I did after that.  I began to think:  There were clothes in the hamper- I can never stay caught up on laundry.... there were a few stray dishes in the sink...why cant anyone ever take out the garbage.... I will never get caught up on my work stuff...  All thoughts that were going through my head.  Those dang wrinkled sheets were going to ruin my excitement over my family coming.  It was at that moment that I had an epiphany!! 

I think that sometimes we let our frustrations and negativity about something small ruin our perception of how great something really is.  For example:  Women fret over a few little pounds when they look in the mirror and cant see how beautiful they really are.  Children get mad and pout over something that they cant have and cant see how much they already have.  Men think if I could just get to that 6 figure income then I will be successful.  We, as today's society, just want more and more.  Nothing is ever good enough. 

Here's an another example:  A happily married couple living in a nice home in a nice neighborhood.  Their friends get a bigger, newer home... The happy couple start to dislike their home.  So they start to pick the house apart. The windows are a little drafty, the floors creak, the yards a little small...etc.etc.  They pick it apart so much that they cant even enjoy living in it for thinking about all the negative things about the house.  Finally, they sell the house and move to a bigger newer house.  Guess what?  There are negatives about that house too.  The cycle continues...They were too close minded to see the bigger picture of what they had in their nice home in their nice neighborhood. They had 3 loving children, good jobs, health, dependable transportation, and most of all they had each other.  They couldnt appreciate the rainbow because they couldn't get past the fact that they had to deal with a little rain. 

I know that I am as guilty as anyone.  Just like today, I couldn't see past those wrinkled sheets.  Here is a picture of what my negative self saw when I looked at those sheets.

But when I took a step back and looked at the situation as a whole it looked like this: 

If you notice in the picture you cant even really see those wrinkled sheets! 

So, my lesson for today:  Don't let a little "wrinkle" in our lives blur our vision so much that we cant see the beauty in what we do have.  Lets not worry about what we don't have... and learn to love the life we have and the people in it-- that's what matters the most. 

*SIDE NOTE*  I do not claim to be a writer.  My grammar is incorrect..and I am not even sure that this makes any sense to anyone. However, I am looking at the picture as a whole.  I hope that someone can read this and it makes them want to go and hug their family and be happy about what they do have.  Instead of being unhappy about what they don't have.