Borrowing A Child’s Wonder

Wonder can disappear without us noticing, and when it does, worry has a way of taking its place. I’m sitting on a rock at the ocean, trying to read, but my mind is crowded with pressure and problems. Then a young mom walks by with her two little kids, and everything shifts. They aren’t “just” walking the beach, they’re on a treasure hunt, squealing over colored stones, shells, and pieces of sea glass like they’ve struck gold.

Watching them hits me with a simple truth: I live in a beautiful place, yet I still take it for granted. Their excitement is contagious because it’s honest. The mom doesn’t brush it off, she joins in, celebrates each discovery, and saves every little find in plastic bags so the kids can revisit the joy later. That moment becomes a picture of what gratitude and mindfulness can look like in real life: slowing down, paying attention, and letting the ordinary become meaningful again.

From there, I connect the experience to faith and Scripture, including Isaiah 42:5, a reminder of God as Creator and giver of breath and life. When I stop noticing God’s creation, my attention drifts toward what’s heavy, and those worries don’t stay in my head, they start to sink into my soul. But when I choose to notice beauty, even small beauty, I feel peace and encouragement to face daily struggles with a steadier heart.

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Transcript

Welcome And The Daily Rhythm

0:10

Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mack and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right.

A Beach Close To Home

0:34

I am very fortunate in that I live in a place that is absolutely beautiful, and I can walk out the door of my house, and within ten minutes, I can be at the ocean beach. It is just so great to be able to do that. And because we're so close, we wind up spending a lot of time down there at the beach, and I enjoy it because we've seen everything from the fish jumping to seals chasing the fish to dolphins and killer whales. It's an absolutely incredible, beautiful place to live and wonderful to be able to be here and to see it.

Kids Turn The Shore Into Treasure

1:04

But I'm thinking right now about a visit I made to the beach within the last couple weeks. I I went down to my regular spot to do some reading. It was a fairly nice day. And as I was sitting there on the rock overlooking the ocean and reading my book, I saw this young mother come along with a couple of her children. I would guess that her kids were something like four and six years old. What caught my attention actually was the absolute unrestrained excitement that these two children had. They weren't just walking along the beach, they were on a treasure hunt. They were discovering things that to them were absolutely amazing. They were collecting colored rocks and pieces of shells and pieces of colorful beach glass, and they were just having a blast as every discovery they made was like finding buried treasure to them. They would squeal with delight, they would pick it up, and they would go running back to show their mother what they had found. At first I I tried to keep reading, but I soon had to stop and just watch what these kids were doing. I smiled and absolutely enjoyed watching these kids on their process of discovery. And their mom, she was great. She was absolutely fantastic with these kids. She was smiling and laughing with them, marveling at their discoveries and encouraging them to go and find some more treasure. She had with her two small plastic bags and she collected everything they found and placed them into these bags for these kids to take with them and to look at again later on. Who knows, maybe they had a greater collection at home of things that they were looking at and were enjoying. This process was repeated over and over as they walked down the beach. The children running a little bit ahead of their mom, discovering something, a cry of delight, and then bringing back this piece of broken shell or stone, and she would store it for them in this bag. The joy was absolutely infectious. And I felt that joy too as I watched and I listened to them. I really liked one of the young boys. He was particularly excited with each new find. He would find a rock or a piece of shell, and he'd run back to mom with it, and he would explain to her all the intricacies of how beautiful this piece was. He would show her the shell and he would tell her, Look, Mom, the edges are like this, and look how it's curved here, and look at this piece here, Mom. Oh, it must have been from something special. And everything that he found, he described as something special. Each rock was this beautiful treasure. Each piece of shell came from a fantastic ocean creature. To him, everything he found told a story, and he was so excited and wanted to tell his mother all about it.

When Gratitude Fades, Worry Grows

3:39

As I thought about this experience afterwards, I realized that even though I live in this beautiful place, I sometimes take it for granted. I went down to the beach to read, but in all reality, my mind was on a lot of the pressures and a lot of the problems that we're dealing with and that we're going through. There were a lot of those small things that the children were excited about that I wasn't particularly excited about at first. And I began to realize that when I take God's creation for granted and I I don't see how wonderful it is, that something happens, that there is a a door that I open up within myself that lets all of the other things that are not so wonderful and beautiful and exciting in this world, I let those things come and start to take prominence in my mind. I I worry about all kinds of things. And then those worries and those burdens, they not only are in my mind, they actually start to, you know, sort of invade my soul, and I begin to feel overwhelmed.

Isaiah, Creation, And A Better Focus

4:38

Isaiah chapter 42 and verse 5 describes the Lord God this way: the creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to all its people and life to those who walk on it. God's creation is all around us. Whether it's what we discover in nature, or maybe we need a child to come along and to show us that marvelous beauty that we were too distracted or too busy to see. You know, right now I think we all need to take time to stop and notice the beautiful things around us. Notice what God has given us, what our Creator has done for us. Fill ourselves up with the joy and the beauty of where we live and what God has given to you right where you are, knowing that God has blessed us with the beauty of His creation, which can help to bring us peace and encouragement as we face the struggles and trials we do every day.

Encouragement And Tomorrow’s Invite

5:31

Have a great day, my friends. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Thank you for listening today. And I invite you to join me Monday to Friday right here on Starting Right with Danny Mack.