Opportunity Knocking

Opportunity. Have you ever thought about what that looks like to you or maybe even what the mainstream identifies with when they envision opportunity? What if we trained our minds to identify opportunity in simple, every day situations? No grandiose job placement, not a huge money making endeavor but more so a way of existing and operating our lives. A sort of motto to live by kind of thing.

Well, I had the opportunity to help a snake to freedom today. Yes, opportunity. Now let's make one thing clear. I am not a snake person. I usually cringe when I see them and I definitely don't want to touch them. Today I tried to see opportunity. My dogs alerted me to something in a roll of erosion control blanket (made with small, plastic netting woven together with loose hay) in our backyard. Yes, of course it was the snake. It was struggling there as it had entered the plastic netting with its more slender head end until it had itself stuck with its fatter middle body.

What would you do?

This life revolves around perspective. The experience I encountered today was an opportunity because it provided an anatomy/species lesson for my miniature onlookers, a chance for redemption for my guilty conscience (this snake encounter thing has a learning curve for a country dweller) and even more than that, a golden opportunity to demonstrate the pivotal choice often taken for granted by humans that think they rule the world. The pivotal choice of choosing life or death in perhaps a simple, invalid way to us because it relates to a not so fluffy animal or insect. But the bigger picture here is how that translates in other ways and in other areas of life. We have this one life to do what we can where we can with what we have in the time given. What will your very small window of opportunity look like?

This experience brought to mind something I had read by my very favorite Rachel Stafford over at Hands Free Mama who talked about a pivotal choice in "A Way for Kids to Learn What the Right Choice Feels Like"  last week in her latest blog. There she states "Doing the right thing ... the loving thing ... the respectful thing ... the compassionate thing ... the compromising thing ... the unifying thing feels like it's getting lost in our world." Let's make sure we call claim to the counter measure right now, today.

Opportunity knocking.

Personally, I am co-parenting two children who impart bountiful pleasure in our lives but also fill me with a heavy sense of responsibility. It is my absolute duty to mold their minds with good. I'm no child expert but I'm certain there is a period of time early on where their minds are absolutely shaped daily very directly by what goes in and the foundation is built for how they will deduce, reason and ultimately act. I want that window to contain small glimpses of differences that can be inferred to a bigger picture of life circumstances. I have been commissioned to get this right. There are no do-overs. So I showed a snake love and respect today.

Slowly, I used small red handled child scissors to cut away tiny pieces of plastic nearly embedded in the snake. Each snip of the erosion control blanket freed the snake more and more. It sometimes wiggled violently even striking me out of fear when given the chance to reach my hand. Startled, I tossed the snake but couldn't walk away from the challenge. I couldn't walk away from the opportunity. What kept me there? Remember, I really don't care for snakes.

Tangled snake mess in plastic netting.

It is no mistake that my soft heart was formed with this intense compassion and empathy that I cannot shake. It is no coincidence that I'm compelled to action even for a snake. There is not a single doubt in my mind that I was built in His image carefully and wonderfully made in the exact way He intended. My parents are not animal lovers. They are what I'd call animal tolerators. Yes, I probably made that word up. But any who, no intense bond with their pets. No real need for companionship at all, really. I share this because I think it is important to note. This trait is embedded deeper than how I was raised or what experiences I was exposed to. It's ingrained in a way I can hardly verbalize. I'm emotionally moved by it and even sometimes irrational because of it.

This intensity I feel is minor compared to that of our mighty God. But it reminds me of an intensity so supreme I can't even fathom - this is how I imagine that I am loved by Him. The magnificent love is what held Him on the cross. He is perhaps frustrated by my lack of appreciation or understanding for how big this love is, what it means, and how it can transform. Just as the snake bit me, we bite Him with dishonor. He loves us still. I wiggle away but I'm still sought. Even if I get caught in a tangled web, He can set me free. He seeks our hearts and minds so that we can be imparted with joy filled living here on Earth and ultimately, freedom. Freedom from sin. For the sinner who surrenders to follow, who longs for Him rather than wiggling away, oh how sweet it is to be loved by Him.

Freedom.

Will you seek opportunity to show love and respect today? With a snake, a stranger at the grocery store, your neighbor who makes different life choices or maybe even for yourself?

#iamsecond #Rachelmindset #onlylovetoday

J