Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

-I Thessalonians 5:18, NLT

My wife and I have adopted two rescue parrots.* They are both Green Cheek Conures.

I did not grow up with birds. Mrs. DM did. In fact, she told me parrots are her preferred pet (even over dogs). Year five going on six and I learned something new about my bride. Anyways, these rescue parrots had spent several years at the rescue and weren’t particularly tame. However, after several months of loving on them, they are now very cuddly and have adopted us as part of their “flock.”

What has DM’s parrots have to do with infidelity and gratitude?

Glad you asked. You see parrots are fun cuddlers. They are very warm-bodied creatures. It feels really wonderful for a parrot to trust you enough to cuddle with you. However, parrots do more than cuddle. They poop. And they poop rather regularly as small birds need to void their digestive tracts. Sometimes that might mean poop landing on your shoulder as they sit there all cute and such. Now, you are faced with a choice in such situations:

Do I decide to focus on my dirty poop touched shirt (getting annoyed) or do I accept the gifts of affection my parrot is offering to me?

If I focused on the bird poo, I would miss out on the precious gifts of the parrots’ cuddles (now, they don’t always poo on you when their cuddling, by the way). My point here is we have a choice in life:

Do we focus on the poo or will we focus on the gifts of love in our lives (and give thanks)?

Infidelity is a big poo. I know. 

However, I have found some amazing gifts along with that awful experience. If all I focused was upon the poo, I would miss out on the relationship strengthening gifts of love from those who really mattered in my life.

Choose to see and receive the love.

Don’t focus on the poo!

_____

*A version of this post ran previously. We now have five parrots who bring great joy to our lives daily.