Find The Positive
Hey team. Here we are. It is a beautiful Wednesday Workshop, and I’m out here on my back porch again. I absolutely love the summertime. I love being able to come out here and listen to the birds and hang out with you.
So, I was reading a week or so ago, Jonathan and I were reading from one of my favorite authors, Max Lucado, and he told this story. It’s a pretty cool story. There’s this guy, and he lives alone. He wants to have singing and something else because his apartment is really quiet. So, he chooses to go to a pet store and says to the pet store owner, “I want a parrot that can sing and liven up my home.”
The guy sells him a parrot. He comes home one afternoon, and there’s music playing, and the birds are singing, and he’s loving it. So, he goes to get some food to feed the parrot. It’s then he realizes that his parrot only has one leg. It’s only got one leg. He gets upset and feels like he’s been jaded somehow, that he’s been taken advantage of, and he calls the pet store owner.
He says, “Hey, you sold me a parrot with just one leg. Why would you do that?”
The pet store owner says, “Did you want a parrot that could sing or a parrot that could dance?”
The moral of the story is, that sometimes we get what we want. We’ve got to remember this guy was looking for a singing parrot. He was looking for something to bring life into his apartment and joy into his apartment through the bird singing. He got focused on something he didn’t realize he was getting, but he forgot that he got everything he wanted.
Us as people so often overlook the great things we have. Trust me, I need this message as much as someone else right now who’s listening to it. We can get focused on our circumstances and complain about everything else and ignore all the beautiful things we have, whether it’s our health, a loving relationship with our children, or our spouse. I’m coming up on 30 years of marriage, and trust me, it’s been a knock-down, drag-out from time to time, but I am so grateful for the love of my wife, the love of my boys, the health of my boys, and the abilities I have in the team that I have around me, the people who have joined us over these last number of months and years.
I was thinking about that even the other day, thinking about how many people we have celebrating years with us. I was thinking about how many people we have that have been here three years, five years, seven years, ten years. Sean’s coming up on his eighth-year anniversary. Caid and Christian have both been here I think right around five years, maybe more. I can’t remember when they were hired. They have just become fixtures of things around here and I don’t want to neglect how amazing they are. The point is that there are a number of people who are celebrating years with us and it used to not be that way
It used to not be that way. Years ago, I didn’t have hardly anybody except for Greg, and Greg just passed his 15-year mark. It’s amazing to me. So, we need to be thankful for what we have. Be happy that you got singing, and if you want dancing, well, then be happy that you got dancing. And if you don’t have singing, don’t complain about the fact that you got dancing. Be grateful for the little things you do have in life.
Be grateful you woke up this morning. You didn’t see your name in the obituary. My great-grandfather used to say that to me all the time. We’d stay out on his farm and I’d come over, and I’d visit him. We’d be out there on his farm, wake up to bacon and eggs, sometimes cow tongue or cow brains, but that’s a story for another time. He’d be looking through the paper, drinking his coffee. He’d look over at me, and I was six, seven, eight, nine years of age. And he’d say, “Chad, I didn’t see my name in the obituary, so I better get out there and get some work done.”
And he’d flip the paper closed, set it on the table, look at me, and say, “You know what? I didn’t see your name in there either, so you better come with me. We better go get some work done.” We’d go out and set fence posts, muck out the stalls, milk the cow, get eggs from the chickens, and do all those kinds of things. My grandfather was the kind of person who lived in every moment, worked really hard, and did the things he did, but he was grateful for every moment. I never saw him complain, right up to the end when he died of cancer. Never saw him complain. Not one day.
So, I want you guys to remember those things, and be thankful for what you have. Look around you, maybe after this message, send a message to your spouse or your kid, or give them a hug tonight when you get home from work. Love on them and tell them how grateful you are. Look around your apartment and be thankful for the things you have because there are a lot of people out there who may have a little bit less than you. So, be grateful for what you do have, the joys in life that we can experience. Stop complaining about the things you don’t have yet. And sometimes it is yet, maybe it’s never, but maybe it’s just not yet. Keep striving, keep persevering, keep working hard, and you’ll accomplish even the things you don’t yet have.
Alright, God bless you guys. This might have been a little deep for some of us, but I think it was a message worth hearing. I will see you guys next week. Remember, God bless you, be valuable because nothing less will do, and enjoy even the small things you do have. Alright, I’ll see you guys next week.