"It has to be taking up space, right?"

So I suddenly find myself amazed at the story of the great flood back in Noah's day... It's been a torrential downpour here for the past two days, and all we have are big puddles and a soggy soccer field. How the heck did the big guy flood the entire planet for 40 days & nights??? That was one freaking huge puddle!!! Luckily that’s not going to happen again anytime soon, but you get the point… it is wet out.
So anyway, I was having a chat with a friend of mine the other day in the library on campus. We were talking about this, that and the other thing for a while. Then somehow we got on the topic of not staying mad about things we can’t change. Then she said something to the effect of, “If you’re thinking about that (things we can’t change), you are missing out on good thoughts that could be there instead”. I said I’d never heard it put that way before, and she said “it’s got to be taking up space, right?” Maybe the concept is a little silly, but there was something so simple, so childlike about the idea that made it stick in my head. When we’re focusing on the bad things we can’t change, we’re cheating ourselves out of the good. When we’re focusing on the problems surrounding us, we’re missing out on how we can overcome them. When we’re focusing on our short-comings, we’re blocking out the truth: that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by an awesome God who loves us way beyond our comprehension.