Green.As.Grass.Gets
When I was 16 I got a job working at a daycare down the street from my high school. Everyday at 3 o’clock I’d go down the hill to spend the afternoon with twenty 5th and 6th graders. I loved my job. I loved my co-workers. And I discovered that I loved kids. However, I think I loved saying goodbye to those kids every night as their parents came to pick them up even more. It was nice to know at the end of the day we would go our separate ways and their parents would have to provide for them.
I was praying with my friend Ashley the other day when this idea hit me. An idea I think we all tend to buy into. The idea that the grass is greener on the other side. That other people live in a better neighborhood. That other people have a better job. That other people have a better marriage or relationship. That other people have better parents or children. And if I’m honest with myself I buy into this idea almost everyday. It’s easy to look at someone else’s life and see the good. To be convinced that the grass they walk on is much greener than the puddle of mud I’m ankle deep in.
It was easy to love those kids at my daycare because they weren’t mine. I didn’t have to take them home. I didn’t have to discipline them. I didn’t have to deal with homework help. I didn’t have to deal with their attitudes. I didn’t have to live under the same roof as them. I simply got to admire them and see how green their grass was from a distance.
Growing up I found myself loving other peoples homes more than my own. I found myself enjoying my friends parents more than my own. I found myself jealous of my friends career paths. I found myself wanting to be in relationships unlike the one I was in. I found myself longing to live other peoples lives. I found myself buying into this idea that the grass is greener on the other side.
And as I was praying with my friend the other day God showed me how big of a lie this is. How lucky I am to have the home that I have. How truly blessed I am to have such amazing parents. He showed me that the career path ahead of me is one that only I can fulfill. That my relationships are amazing just they way they are. And that longing to live anyone’s life but my own is a true shame.
God is calling us to realize that this idea that the grass is greener on the other side is a lie. He has placed us where we are for a reason. He needs us to embrace our current situations and accept the fact that no one else can do what he’s asking us to do. His heart is that we may wake up to the fact that we don’t have it as bad as we may think. He wants us to open our eyes and realize the ground we walk on is as Green.As.Grass.Gets
-Billy
