I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.  Even though I don’t come close to being a morning person, I do my best every day to go forth, do great, and forget about my bed that doesn’t seem to want to let me go.  My morning routine was business as usual until I realized that one of my favorite pieces of jewelry was missing!  *insert music to signal impending doom* Now, I’m very much an analytic, neat freak who makes it a point to put all of my things in the place I’ve designated as their home.  So, I knew that if one piece of the jewelry I wear just about every day was in its place, then this particular ring should’ve been there too.  That was the rationale I had declared in my mind, but of course that wasn’t reality since I found myself looking all over my room and checking purses and cracks where it couldn’t have possibly been.  I had to look anyway.

During this intense 5-10 minute searching spree, my thoughts began to shift to all things negative.  Maybe I left it at Lather where I was trying a bunch of skin care options over the weekend (btw…they have great soaps!).  Maybe it has been missing a day longer than I actually thought and I’m now noticing.  Is it in the vacuum cleaner?  Great, it fell out of my car on the ground and it’s now being kissed by oodles of rotating tires.  I think I had about 20 thoughts go by in a matter of 30 seconds, all of which were negative.  Clearly, I did not awaken with any inkling of victory.  While I was grateful to see another day, my actions embodied defeat.  I decided that wasn’t conducive to a productive week, so I took all of those thoughts captive and re-focused my energy on my devotional.  Plus, I didn’t have anymore time to look up, down, and all around my room with a full day of work ahead of me.  My devotional this morning was from Exodus 16 when God gives the children of Israel manna and quail even after their complaints about not having any food.  Yikes!  Not even a few minutes before I had started reading I was distraught and grumbling about what I had lost too.  I’m always amazed how even in this day blessings will come despite our complaints and protests.  I felt like that was the perfect message to start my week even after losing my jewelry.

As I was getting ready to leave the house, I decided to check my jewelry box one more time.  You’d never believe what I found in one of the small corners that I had looked previously even though I don’t ever put this particular ring there.  Sitting right there in that spot was…my ring!!!  *insert sigh of relief*  I had spent part of my morning being a sourpuss and yet I had overlooked what was right in front of me.  *covers face*  Ultimately, I’m glad I found my ring, but more importantly, I’m encouraged by my effort to quiet the negativity that is always more of a distraction than it is help to what’s happening in life.  Sometimes you have to redirect your energy in order to produce an optimal result.  So, whether you’ve misplaced something or you’re struggling to make it over the hump, I urge you to quiet your pessimism.  Only then will you begin to find what you’re looking for.  Solutions, and I guess rings, tend to hide in unlikely, yet promising places.