How to Improve Your Outlook from Where’s Waldo

Sometimes inspiration comes from the most unexpected places! Looking for a way to encourage a friend, the book Where’s Waldo popped into my mind. The popular books with visual puzzles of Waldo wearing his red and white striped shirt hiding in a busy scene turned out to be just the analogy I needed to lift her spirits.

Navigating a challenging season, she’s been feeling like God has been completely silent or even absent lately. Her life has felt a bit like a chaotic scene from the Waldo books lately. I encouraged her to wake up every day and remember the premise of that book but, instead of looking for Waldo, everyday wake up determined to find God’s fingerprint or influence on the day. After all, when you take time to see the good and recognize God in your everyday life your outlook improves.

Where’s Waldo meets faith:

You find what you look for.

With a Where’s Waldo book, if you don’t open the pages and look for Waldo, you won’t find him. We don’t typically find what we aren’t looking for. When life feels challenging and it seems like God has gone silent, it might just be time to start looking for his fingerprint on your day. Look at each day as a new page. Just like the publishers of the book put Waldo on each page, God is present on each “page” of your life. Wake up determined to find the good, count your blessings, and recognize His fingerprints.

It gets easier to spot him.

The more you play along with the Where’s Waldo books, the easier it gets to find him. At first it can be challenging to find him despite his famous red and white striped shirt. But, with time your eyes are better trained to skip over the distractions and find Waldo more quickly. With our faith, the more we look to find God’s fingerprints on our days, the easier it becomes to spot them. When we’re discouraged, we may feel as though we can’t think of anything to be thankful for. Looking for 3 things to be grateful for each day is a great way to improve your vision to spotting God in your day. The more you look for Him, the easier it gets to spot Him.

The sooner you start looking, the sooner you find.

If you leave a Where’s Waldo book on the shelf, you won’t find Waldo. The sooner you open the pages, the sooner you’ll find him. The same is true for God in our lives. The sooner we look for Him, the sooner we’ll find Him. He’s always there. We just don’t always notice. Start noticing. You’ll be amazed the many places you’ll spot His fingerprints!

It’s your turn:

If you’re in a hectic season of life, I hope my Waldo analogy will encourage you. Be inspired to get up every day and look for God’s fingerprint on your day. Don’t let the chaos around you camouflage His presence. Keep looking… you’ll find it. And, unlike a Waldo in the book, you can find far more than one fingerprint on a day.

As always I welcome comments. Click to join the conversation.

Until next time, be blessed!