Friday, August 21, 2015

The Black Dot

by Deanna


One day a professor entered the classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They waited anxiously at their desks for the test to begin. The professor handed out the question paper, with the text facing down as usual. Once he handed them all out, he asked his students to turn the page and begin. To everyone’s surprise, there were no questions….just a black dot in the center of the page. The professor seeing the expression on everyone’s face, told them the following:

“I want you to write what you see there.”

The students confused, got started on the inexplicable task. At the end of the class, the professor took all the answer papers and started reading each one of them aloud in front of all the students. All of them with no exceptions, described the black dot, trying to explain its position in the middle of the sheet, etc. etc. etc. After all had been read, the classroom silent, the professor began to explain:

“I am not going to grade you on this, I just wanted to give you something to think about. No one wrote about the white part of the paper. Everyone focused on the black dot – and the same happens in our lives. We have a white paper to observe and enjoy, but we always focus on the dark spots. Our life is a gift given to us by God, with love and care, and we always have reasons to celebrate – nature renewing itself everyday, our friends around us, the job that provides our livelihood, the miracles we see everyday…….

However we insist on focusing only on the dark spots – the health issues that bother us, the lack of money, the complicated relationship with a family member, the disappointment with a friend etc  The dark spots are very small compared to everything we have in our lives, but they are the ones that pollute our minds.

Take your eyes away from the black spots in your life. Enjoy each one of your blessings, each moment that life gives you.

Be happy and live a life positively!

And because it's HOT PINK week.....


And next week's color is......WHITE!!  That will be a challenge for me, I don't do white well. We will look forward to seeing your WHITE images in our FOL Flickr group

9 comments:

kelly said...

oh this is such a good lesson deanna!

Unknown said...

Oh my goodness ... this was fabulous!

terriporter said...

Love this story and it is so very true! We should all hang up a piece of white paper with a black spot in the middle to remind us to focus on the light, not the dark. And your photos are beautiful!

Cheryl McCain said...

God always manages to give us what we need just when we need it......and this was meant for me today! Thanks so much......it was wonderful!

barb s said...

Loved this

Sarah Huizenga said...

Great story and very wise words from a very smart woman.

Unknown said...

Love this story - I may use this in my classroom in our 1st day back!

Cathy H. said...

Wow, that story has me do a lot of thinking! I have so many wonderful areas to my life. I need to be focusing more on those!

Nina said...

Such a beautiful reminder on focus on the things we can be thankful for, Deanna!

Post a Comment

Thank you for sharing part of your day with us. If for any reason you are unable to leave a comment here on this post, please leave your comment on our Facebook page or in our Flickr discussion group. We love hearing from you!

 
© Focusing On Life