One of my daily treats is Dear Abby.  Every day when we get the newspaper I read the comics and then Dear Abby.  The comics make me laugh and Dear Abby is a good way to learn manners, or as I truthfully state it, learn from other people’s mistakes. Usually I read the advice column and say (to myself) “Don’t do that,” or “remember to do this.”  Something I read in Dear Abby this week has become that thought that keeps on bugging me.  No matter how hard I try the content of this particular query has come back again and again.  The reader was concerned because she recently joined Facebook and the whole experience was stressing her out.

The heart of the matter was she was comparing what I call “supposed to” with reality.  She was supposed to be more successful and she was supposed to have a happier life.  Her friends all had great jobs, great families and great lives. The letter writer was in a place where she didn’t want to share because it wasn’t good enough.  If I could have responded I would have said, “you’re not the only one honey!”

Case in point:

• I have wanted to go to Europe since I was 9. The closest I have ever been is photoshopping my
  

  The closest I have been to Europe is via photoshop

  family in a picture of the Eiffel tower.

• I love all the “Don’t Eat This” foods.
• Those ads that ask if you want to lose 20 pounds irritate me because I need to lose 50.
• The son that got the big scholarship for college, was the one that decided he didn’t want to go.
• My house is the one that makes everybody feel good about theirs.
• If there is a competition, no matter how hard I try I am in the back of the pack.

This week Matthew Barnett tweeted something many people in my social circle hear all the time from his father Tommy Barnett:  “I choose to not see problems anymore….I just choose to praise God all the time.”  Now let’s take all those negatives from above (and trust me there’s more I stopped because this is a 500ish word blog)

• I live in a state that has so many tourist attraction that I haven’t been able to see them all.  My life never lacks in adventure.
• Dunkin Donuts are a gift from heaven. How can you say don’t eat a gift from heaven and be right?
• I can’t explain it, but my marriage took a strangely positive turn when the hubby poked the belly jiggle and both of us giggled like little kids in the jello commercial.
• I’m still dealing with the “I don’t want to go to college” sting.
• People don’t feel bad about spilling drinks at my house.
• I have a lot of friends, because if I’m going to lose a race I may as well have fun.  So while I’m in the back I am chatting away with all the other people that are as slow as me.  It’s o.k. that they are probably 30 years older than me.

In other words, one way of praising God is allowing the positives to be stronger than the negative. We have a choice in how we view our lives.  That is one  of the many reasons why Facebook is effective, it gives us one more chance to see the good in our lives and share it.  And, that’s what Abby said too.  So this time when I read the article I got to say, “I do that!” And believe me, that does not happen too often.