Last weekend I went on a girls night out with a couple friends. One of the friends that came has never been out with us before. Not because we don’t love her, but because she has some serious health problems that require her to be very careful what she is exposed to. (In fact I’m really hoping she isn’t sick right now because she came with us) Several times while we were out she mentioned how different it was to be out with us at the mall looking at clothes and jewelry and talking about our body image flaws when normally her friends are talking about whether they will be alive for long or not.
That really got me thinking. I have been blessed with good health all my life. Seriously, the worst illness I’ve had is probably bronchitis or maybe strep throat. I’ve never had to spend a night in the hospital except for when I had the twins. I’ve never had surgery and the only bone I’ve broken is my toe. Health has mostly been something I take for granted until I get the flu or something else that makes me feel horrible, but then is gone in a few days. Somehow this led to me thinking about all the other blessings I have in my life and how easy it is to take those things for granted too. I mean, who am I REALLY that I deserve to have such an easy life? My trials—although hard for me at the time, are NOTHING compared to so many people in this world. My basic needs are met and then some. I have the gospel in my life to help me through the “trials” that come my way. (I put trials in quotes because right now I feel like my trials are so trivial)
There are people all over the world that are dealing with REAL tragedy and trying to figure out how to survive and help their children to survive. Think Haiti and Chile not to mention all of the countries where the struggle for survival is continual. It makes me and my body image issues seem completely ridiculous! It makes my lack of sleep and my shortness of patience and the winter blahs and my petty jealousies and all of the other things that I’ve been having a hard time with lately pale in comparison. It makes me want to DO something to help someone. This is about as far as I usually get—I feel the need to help someone and then I get lost not knowing who to help or how to help or where to start.
Do you ever wonder why you are so blessed? Do you get caught up in things that aren’t terribly important? How do you keep things in perspective? When you feel the need to serve what do you do? How do I stop worrying about all the things that aren’t important and start taking care of things that are?
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4 comments:
Good questions. I feel the same way. I think we just have to wake up every day and think about someone who could benefit from a call or note. Sometimes, I get an idea that I should do something and I push it aside in my mind. I'm learning not to ignore those promptings. I know when I follow through with them it has been an answer to someone's prayer or helped ease their burden. I always think it has to be big. Sometimes I have enough big in my own home, so little things intermixed with big is good. I struggle to find things for my kids to do to serve others.
I have no answers, but I'm so glad you wrote your feelings. Good reminders to me, an expert complainer.
I have to stop myself every now and then to remind myself of that. I tend to feel sorry for myself sometimes and forget how blessed I truly am. When Jalen was in the hospital, I kept thinking of parents who have children with chronic diseases and spend all their time in the hospital.
When I need someone to help I think of my VTeaching sisters and try to schedule a time to watch their kids or make them dinner. Then I bake cookies for my neighbors, just for fun. Find someon's birthday on the RS calendar and call them or make a cake. Suprise someone with lunch.
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