Valentines all around us...

many times a day, He whispers I love you, but I am too busy, or __________ (irritated, frantic, discontent, tired, preoccupied, looking elsewhere) to see 

slow down to see  

choose to see

I need to focus to see.  to pay attention to see.   what I magnify, make larger, more prominent, more noticeable, by my attention, is what I see..and what others see.

"What will a life magnify? The world's stress cracks, the grubbiness of a day, all that is wholly wrong and trerribly busted?" (Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts, p.59)

What will I make larger, more visble, notice..by my attention, words and actions?

Today I sat on the front porch with my mom...in matching rocking chairs, feeling irritated by the constant interruptions by my children, with the lingering  crankiness of a before church squabble between my boys...

moments lost...love letters lost...I magnified the grubbiness...  one day,  there will be no interrupting children and no momma sitting in the other chair.  ...   i missed it.

So much of our life we miss it.  The love poured out on us moment by moment...because we magnify the wrong thing.  

I am trying to learn.  Learning is not always easy.  I am making my list..today I felt hard pressed to write on it.  I did not see the valentines all around me.

-little girls in pretty pink shirts

-diary of a grandpa's birthday in broken English

-gingerbread cupcakes gone in an hour

-spelling words for the fun of it

-non-stop 7 year old stories

-little hearts saying notice me, love me, do it for me

-the grace of another day

-heart shaped boxes and nanny-penned envelopes

-family

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

join in the read-along of Ann Voskamp's book One Thousand Gifts, over at {In}Courage.  We are on Chapter 3.