Chasing Diamonds

Favre vs. Packers on MNF. I bet the announcers are drooling over this story.
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I recently was reminded of a story I have heard before (or a version similar) of an African farmer who was successful and had started farming because he enjoyed working the land. He began to hear about people discovering diamonds around the country and he heard how wealthy they were becoming and decided that even though he was good at what he did, it wasn't making him lots of money. He decided to sell his farm and go diamond hunting and spent the rest of his life looking for something he would never find, ending up broke and broken down and took his own life. At the same time, the guy who had bought his farm happened across a beautiful stone in one of the creeks on the property and put it on his mantle at home. A visitor stopped by one day, saw the stone on the mantle and told the owner it was a diamond. They began going over the property and found more and more stones and the farm turned out to be one of the best diamond mines in the country.

It's a good reminder that I need to look more closely at what I have and find the beauty in it instead of seeing what I don't have and losing focus. I know there are those of us who are guilty of not enjoying what we have while imaging things would be so much better with something else.

I'm guilty of taking for granted the beauty God has placed in my life, failing to see the diamonds laying around me. I need to remember to look through God's eyes and not my own, I need to remember to see what he wants me to see, not what I want to look for. I can look and see what I don't have or I can look and see the beauty and wonder God grants me each day.

Grace and peace to you.