Tops and Bottoms

I have decided that perspective is kind of an important thing when it comes to our view on the world.  We can choose to look at the positive or we can choose to look at the negative.  We can choose to complain or we can choose to do something about it.  There are so many different ways that perspective can hurt or help us.  A picture book that I love is Tops and Bottoms. 

In this book Hare and his family are hungry and don't have land to raise a garden on.  Bear is rich and lazy, but he has enough land to put a garden on.  Hare makes a deal with Bear- Hare will farm the land for half the crop.  The first year the deal is that Hare will get the bottoms and Bear will get the tops.  So Hare plants: beets, carrots, and radishes.  Bear doesn't get anything but bare plants.  He gets nothing to sustain him for the winter.  The next year Bear insists that he get the bottoms, so Hare plants:  broccoli, lettuce, and celery.  Bear, yet again, gets nothing to sustain him through the winter.  Life seems to be like this sometimes.  We want the easy way out.  We want all the benefits of working hard without really working.  Now, I'm not saying that what Hare did was honest, but Bear could have prevented this by getting out and helping Hare.  Sometimes, we want to be sustained through winter without trying.  We have to prepare for the winter and then we will be taken care of.  Heavenly Father can't do all of the work and we get all of the benefits.  This is our time to learn and to grow, to struggle and to be shaped.  If we work hard to prepare for things then will we have sufficient for our needs.