Four leaf clovers

One of the bloggers I follow wrote something recently that meant a lot to me. Whenever something touches me or causes me to see something in myself, I want to share it. What better place than right here on my blog?

I especially liked the part about her husband. I want to remember that for always.

In case you'd like to hop over and check her out. You may click here.


When I was younger, I was well-known in my small town as being an adept finder of four leaf clovers. Okay, fine, scratch that. No one in our town probably knew that about me, except my family. But if they would have, I'm sure they'd have been impressed. And I would have been well-known.

No fewer than twelve of the lucky plant life specimens were plucked by my young fingers during my formative years. Gingerly carried to a safe place and then pressed between pieces of clear packing tape to preserve them, four leaf clovers were like my middle name.

Recently when I was sitting in the grass at a local park, watching our Many (tan, sweaty) Small Children play, I had a flashback to my clover picking days. Whenever I'd be in the grass, be it watching my dad play softball or waiting for the bus or at a picnic, I'd undoubtedly look for four leaf clovers. And, more times than not it seemed, I'd come across one, even in the most weedy of areas.

As I was thinking about this the other day, I couldn't help but wonder if the area I grew up in was especially lucky to have had so many of the special little plants or what. Near as I could tell, other children hadn't come across bucketloads of four leaf clovers. So did the fact that I found so many of them have to do with an infestation of four leaf clovers in grassy areas near me?

And then it hit me. No, it probably had nothing to do with that.

I'm sure I found so many four leaf clovers during my childhood simply because I was always looking for them. Thinking back now, I doubt our backyard was any more infested with such special plants than was anyone else's. But, for reasons that escape me, I had an intense penchant for searching for four leaf clovers. I looked for them almost compulsively whenever I was in the grass. And, oftentimes, I found one, stuck tape all over it and saved it in a special notebook I had.

As I was realizing this the other day, that probably the only reason I found so many four leaf clovers was simply that I looked for them so often, another truth showed itself as a possible parallel:

Perhaps having a good life, one that we are satisfied or joyful in, is not measured by how much subjective good there actually is in our lives, but simply in if we look for satisfaction and joy.

For example, when I am full of a spirit of restoration and love, I can choose to look at my husband and see the good in him. I can focus my attention on the things I love about my husband and put blinders up to the small, irritating things that might otherwise irk me.

The converse is true, too. When I am feeling self-righteous and negative, I can look at that same husband and choose to see only his flaws. When I let his flaws fester in my mind, they seem to grow bigger and more irritating. The good that is in my husband is shoved to the side as I am first unwilling and, later, in fact unable to see it in him.

Nothing about my husband himself changed in these two scenarios. The difference was just in my outlook, in what I searched for.

The same, I'm finding, is true for my life. The situations in our lives are what they are. Being given a so-called bad lot in life should perhaps not be perceived as receiving a life sentence to suffer a joyless, unfulfilled existence. I want to assert that I think anyone can find peace in whatever their circumstances are, if only they will look for it.

We are currently in a season of change. Health, finances, housing, relationships, employment, hospitalizations and the like are fluid for us right now. Things are fluxing and evolving. This time has great bottled potential to be very stressful for me, as I deal with all these changes while still balancing parenting our young children, one of whom has serious health concerns.

But I think the great key to joy, peace and satisfaction in life is in what I look for. Of course, I don't always spend time in the grass searching for four leaf clovers. But when I do, and I press in to find what good can come from the fact that we are financially unstable, I find peace. When hatred surrounds me, if I cling to Jesus and let Him lift me out of the mire, I know a closeness to Him I otherwise wouldn't have. As Stellan endures hospitalizations and an unknown medical future, we can make the choice to look for joy in the fact that he has brought such purpose into our lives instead of being crippled by fear of losing him.

What hope it brings me to realize that, just like when I was a child, there are still four leaf clovers everywhere! All I need to do is look for them.