Yesterday when I was at school I found myself humming a song for no particular reason. I often find myself doing this, but when I realized what song I was humming, it made me stop and think for a moment. The song that I was humming was “Accentuate the Positive.” I am sure most of you know this Johnny Mercer song, but in case you do not know it, I am sure you will recognize these first lines from the song. “You have to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative, but don’t mess with mister in between.” When I thought about the song a little further, I began to see that that is what we all should really do. We should spend most of our time accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative.

You see, the thing that many of us often forget is that there is still so much beauty and positivity for us to focus on in this world. We often find ourselves focusing on all of the negative things. This is easy to do because it seems that we are constantly reminded of all the negative things that are happening around us. What we all need to try harder to do is focus on the positive side of life. That is what God wants all of us to do, and He has provided all of us with positive things that we can focus on if we just take a moment to notice them.

There is so much beauty in the world. We all see the world through different eyes. I see the world differently than another person does, and he sees it differently than I do. We all have our own unique way of seeing the world. However, if we are focusing on the beauty of the world, it is true that we may see the beauty in different places, but the feeling that we have because of the beauty that we see will be the same.

Some people see beauty in nature. There are so many beautiful things to behold when we look at nature. A misshapen tree, a flock of geese, a mother deer with her fawn, a sunflower, and the list goes on and on. Others see beauty in their surroundings. Maybe they see beauty in a painting, an antique piece of furniture, the sound of a loved ones voice, the sound of a child laughing, or the bark of joy that a cherished pet makes when we come home. Others see beauty in acts kindness. They see beauty when someone performs a random act of kindness, gives to a charity, smiles, calls an old friend, or tries to make someone else’s life better.

Regardless of what makes us see the beauty in the world, the most important thing is that we see it. When we see the beauty in the world, we will have a better outlook on life. We will not feel so heavy and we will have more peace and PEACE MATTERS!

~Dan~