8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Several times when I was a kid I had the opportunity to fling a boomerang. I have to tell you, I do not have an athletic bone in my body, so, the thing did not go very far before it dropped to the ground. Now, the people I was with, that was a different story! They would fling that thing at just the right angle with perfect speed and a strong arm. Then,stay out of the way! It really does come right back to you, and may even hit you in the head, if you are not watchful!
In Australia the tribes of Aboriginal’s used the boomerang as a weapon for hunting! The skilled hunter would throw a boomerang at an animal to disable it, or at a flock of birds near him, when it returned-boom! Dinner. The boomerang was used even before the time of King Tutankhamen! He used it to hit flocks of birds, hoping to hit one.
Of course, children in these cultures saw the boomerang used by their fathers and asked for one for a toy. Smaller boomerangs came into being, and now we have toy boomerangs.
When I thought about these amazing feats of simple engineering, I thought about our emotions. I know you have been around, or sat talking with someone who is in a negative mood. Nothing is going right for them, and they must give you every detail of their miserable day (or life). Pretty soon your shoulders slump, you are agreeing with the pessimist and that negative, nasty, stinky attitude they threw, boomerangs back to them because you start down the same path! Your day may not have been too bad, but listening to theirs reminded you of all the bad stuff that happened to you. Maybe it was just a hang-nail, but it’s a BAD hangnail!
I have also found the opposite to be true. Start the conversation with joy! Since you are awake, you are blessed. Since you are reading this on a computer, you can read, you can see, and you have a computer! You are blessed. You probably are in a dwelling of some sort. You probably had a meal today, got a glass of water, had soap to wash your hands (a million times) and have warm clothes to wear. These are all things that we seem to take for granted. When an unexpected bill comes, we forget about all the blessings I described. We often start down the ‘poor me’ path!
I would like to propose that we remember to use a ‘joy boomerang’ as a weapon to defeat negativism! Oh, we know there is a lot to be negative about right now, but I for one do not want that negative boomerang to be thrown from my lips! I want to be a conscientious joy boomerang wielder! I want to think before the words leave my mouth (difficult task for me). I want my words to be JOY filled. I want to throw that JOY boomerang and watch as it returns to me, from the other person, also JOY filled! Now, that’s a cool weapon! One there is no law against, nor permit needed. Now, some training may be necessary if we have been in the habit of throwing negative boomerangs, but, it’s and easy training. Think joy, throw joy, receive joy!
Question: What kind of boomerang are you throwing?
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