Finding Beauty in Ordinary Life

There is beauty all around if you know how to see it!

It's wonderful when we have an encounter with beauty. It's a mountain-top experience, like a retreat or falling in love. It's great, but not something that happens every day.

Right?

Wrong.

There is beauty all around us. God has given us so much beauty, but encountering it depends quite a bit on how we view it. Living a life imbued with beauty takes a change of mind, a change of perspective, a change of heart.

Living a life imbued with beauty takes a change of mind, a change of perspective, a change of heart.

So, how do we do that? How do we encounter beauty in everyday life? How can we open our eyes to the beauty of the world around us? What are some practical things we can do to add beauty to our lives?

First, open your eyes! So often we are so distracted by our worries, thoughts, and devices, that we fail to see what is going on around us. Challenge yourself for a day to cut out the noise. Put down your phone around your family and while you're in the car. Instead of watching TV after dinner, take walk. Spend time outside. Invest time in the people around you. You'll be amazed at what you notice.

Slow down and really take in nature. Pause to notice the color of the changing leaves, the delicate wildflower, the intricacy of the bird's feather. Take a moment to truly listen to what the person in front of you is saying. Don't respond in your head before they've even finished speaking. Take a moment to appreciate them. Thank them for being in your life. Stop and marvel at the way your own body works. Right now, as you are reading these words, you are breathing, your heart is pumping blood, your neurons are firing, you feel your phone in your hand or the computer mouse under your hand. Beauty and wonder are ever present if we simply stop for a moment and live in the present moment.

Second, surround yourself with beautiful things. Print off a picture of your favorite piece of art and hang it in your cubicle at work. Listen to beautiful music. Read a good book or watch a good movie. Take in media that makes you think rather than media that numbs you. In surrounding yourself with beauty, don't simply cover every surface or constantly surround yourself with beautiful noise. Beautiful noise is still noise after all, and you can only appreciate beauty fully in silence. Make a place to pause.

Third, and finally, in the pause, pray. Thank the Lord for the beauty you see around you. Thank him for the creative genius He gave to your favorite artists, musicians, and authors. Thank Him and praise Him for the beauty of the natural world. Thank Him for encounters with others and the beauty they add to your life.

All this takes intentionality and discipline. It takes time to create new habits and to learn to see the world in a new way. But, the more you take time to seek out the beauty of everyday things, the more beautiful things you will find every day.

The more you take time to seek out the beauty of everyday things, the more beautiful things you will find every day.

The Lord longs to reveal Himself to you and the more you seek Him, the more you will find Him, and soon enough, the ordinary and the mundane become less and less ordinary and mundane and more and more extraordinary and wondrous.

How do you encounter beauty in everyday life? Share with us in the comments!