Thank You, God, for a perfect moment...

On a bright, sunny day in late August, I am at the West Endicott pool with my youngest son, Kevin, watching him splash around in the water...

While running some errands with the family, I catch a moment with my wife outside the van in a parking lot while all of the children are inside and we hold hands...

A week ago, I walked around the corner to Felix Roma's to get some bread for dinner with Kevin in my backpack - he was laughing and the sun was warm and glorious on a late fall afternoon...

My oldest daughter and I drove to Syracuse for an ear doctor appointment. On the drive up there, we kept on trying to see VW Beetles and PT Cruisers before the other to get the "Punchbug" or "Cruiser bruiser" before the other...

What do all of these things have in common? They are perfect moments. It is so easy to open the news and see terrible things going on in the world. The future is always bleak - the economy is never going to come back, politicians are corrupt, the world is going to end because of global warming but that is OK, you are going to be dead from the swine flu first... Everyone has a reason to be scared and depressed. But does it really have to be that way?

I have gotten into the habit of thanking God when I have a perfect moment. I am not putting blinders on - there are still bad things in the world and I know it. What I choose to do is to appreciate the perfect moments in life, the perfect moments that happen every day of our lives; little things that are so easily overlooked in the chaos of everyday life. I believe that these are gifts from God, ways of Him showing us that there is hope and goodness and a reason to go on.

Perfect moments are not something that you can go looking for. I read recently about some guy in California who made the statement, "I went 'boarding on some nice waves in the morning and I a going to drive up to the mountains for some skiing in the afternoon - how can church compare with that?". That is hedonism, the mindless pursuit of pleasure. Thanking God for perfect moments is choosing to recognize the good in the world.

The world is so good at noticing everything that is bad. The classic newspaper line is, if it bleeds, it leads. If we are to have any kind of a future, we need to challenge that. We need to begin recognizing the good in people and the good in the world. I have heard it said that one of the devil's most powerful tools is despair. Just looking at the world today, does it look like someone is trying to sow despair? What I am proposing is hope, and not BHO's kind. Maybe hope is not the right word, maybe faith is a better word?

I want to stress again that this is not about putting blinders on and tuning out the world around you. Instead, it is taking the blinders off and seeing the entire world for what it is. There is bad in the world - we get it already. There is also good in the world - and we need to see that. If all we see and believe is that the end is near and everything is only going to get worse, we can give up, stop trying to help and make things better. If we choose to see good and thank God for it, then going out of our way to help others makes sense. Hopeful people are a charitable people.

I started doing this a few years ago. There have been times that things have been pretty hopeless - the job situation was shaky, things were not good between Mary and and me, I was having a difficult time with the children... The list always goes on. I was out with a couple of the children, I think it was at a soccer game - and the sky was blue, the sun was warm, and the children were having a great time. It dawned on me that this was a perfect moment, and I thanked God for that moment of rest and hope. This is what keeps me going, looking for the perfect moments. They never show up when I expect them - but always when I need them.

Try looking for your perfect moments today - and remember to thank God for them. They are His gift to you.