Gratitude Smack Up Side The Head

(This pic doesn't really have much to do with this post, other than it is of Brinlee smiling rather than throwing a mega fit, and for that I am grateful!)

I have been kind of a whiner lately.  Not really to anybody other than myself, but still a whiner.  Brad was out of town all last week for work.  He was only supposed to have to go quarterly, but this was his 4th trip this year so it has been more frequent than we thought.  I try to start the weeks out on a positive note when I know he is going to be gone.  Unfortunately, I woke up with a nasty cold Monday morning which kind of did me in on the positive front.  I was so worn out by the time bed time rolled around that I was shorter with the kids than I would like to admit.  We made it through the week though and picked Brad up on Friday.  You know when you are sick and then you feel better and you are so grateful for your health.  That is how it is when Brad is gone.  I almost forget how nice it is to have another set of hands at crucial times of the day -dinnertime, bedtime, bath time.  Then yesterday I was making a lovely turkey breast for dinner and right before I started dishing up everyone's plates, Drew turns pale and runs to the bathroom and well you can imagine the rest.  Suddenly my appetite was gone.  After I tucked him into bed, I came in our bedroom and dramatically fell onto our bed asking Brad why our kids can't just be healthy 100% of the time.  He didn't hear me and asked me to repeat what I said.  I was about to say it again when I remembered something.  One of the evenings last week while Brad was away I was browsing blogs.  I happened upon one of a girl I knew in high school.  We weren't really great friends, but it was still fun to check out her life through her blog.  I quickly realized that things were not good for her and her family as of late.  A couple of months ago she had her 4th baby who was born with severe medical problems.  It was a total shock as they though everything had been fine during the pregnancy.  The baby has had a lot of tests to try to diagnose her, but there are still no answers.  My heart broke as I read through post after post of this girl I knew from high school struggling to find answers for her sick baby as well as taking care of three other children at home.  Another thought then came to my mind of some friends of ours who have just recently experienced a job loss.  They are doing everything they can to get back on their feet, but still are frustrated with their current situation.  I feel for them and want to do anything I can to help them.  I realize that first off I need to stop being a whiner.  My life is great!  That doesn't mean that I am not allowed to get stressed when I have requests from 4 little people coming at me all at once and I am the only adult around to help.  It doesn't mean that I have to love cleaning up barf.  It just means that I need to look outside of myself and my situation and see others around me who have their own set of trials(most of the time much bigger than mine) and instead of comparing myself to them or having a pity party for myself, do something for someone else.  It is very easy to get in our own bubbles day to day.  To think that my life is so hard.  Why am I having to deal with this?  Why does so and so have it so much better than me?  The truth is that we really don't know other peoples situations completely and it really doesn't matter.  When I serve others, when I pray for someone else, when I think about how I can improve someone else's situation, I find that I am happier in my own life.  I am able to acknowledge all the good that I have in my life and show my gratitude by helping someone else.  So there you have it.  Smacked upside the head by some gratitude.  Now I am on to the rest of my day and hopefully I will carry this lesson with me as I go.