perception

We all have our appointments we don’t look forward to.  Oddly enough, I love going to the dentist!  I found out that they have cookie dough flavored tooth polish and request it every time now.  J  I love the squeaky clean feeling of my teeth after I’ve gone and try to keep it that way as long as possible.  The hygienist laughed when I told her how much I loved going to the dentist and mentioned that I didn’t understand when people didn’t like to brush their teeth more often.  She said for those who don’t brush their teeth multiple times a day there is a saying “brush your teeth in the morning to keep your friends, brush your teeth before bed to keep your teeth.”  Sounds good to me, I love brushing my teeth and flossing!

Today, however, I had that appointment that I don’t look forward to.  The OB/GYN.  It actually wasn’t as bad as I was anticipating since they didn’t do a pap smear this time.  Whew.  I have that to look forward to next year!  I love getting to appointments early on the way to work to get it out of the way and not worry about traffic or stress of getting there on time after work.  (Well, let’s be real, I live in Knoxville, TN and there isn’t really any traffic unless there is an accident.  When you grew up in the Bay Area of California, other places that aren’t big cities can’t really boast about the traffic.)

This all just made me think of my attitude toward things I’m not necessarily looking forward to.  Often we need to do things that we don’t like or don’t enjoy – for me that would be putting away laundry and dishes.  I don’t mind doing the laundry (all you do is throw it into the washing machine and then move it to the dryer making sure to pull out the clothes that need to hang to dry) or the dishes.  Or coming across a person who isn’t in the holiday spirit and cross or cranky.  I try to remind myself that they may have had a bad day (or month, year or life) and try to be extra nice to those people.  At another job one of my co-workers said something that stuck with me: “when people are mean or angry, it’s good to remember we only have to deal with them for 5 minutes/an hour/a day, but they have to deal with themselves 24/7.”

It’s also good to remind myself that God loves everyone and everything.  Whether I’m doing dishes, laundry, working, playing with my baby or cooking for my family I need to do it with joy.  I don’t always have to be smiling but I should be thankful I can do them.  I talk to patients every day that have issues and pain and I am blessed to not have too many problems pain wise.  I am a work in progress and working on my attitude and how I perceive things.  I am always blessed and doing better than I deserve thanks to God and His sacrifice for my sins.  I just hope others can see that I’m trying!

-run for life