Count Your Blessings

Today has been such an eye opening day for me.  As much as I try to see the world as it really is, and as much as I try to not sugar coat reality it still shocks me at times.  I think I needed this shock to the system today.

This morning I watched "Little Women" (the new one) because I love watching it at Christmas time.  I felt so grateful for many things while watching it.  I felt grateful for my healthy children and doctors and medicine that can cure things when they are sick.  I felt grateful for modern conveniences like heaters.  I also, however, felt like I wanted the sense of love and affection they had for one another and was racking my brain for any idea of how to help my family be like that. 

Then I read a little of the news and heard about the Connecticut elementary school shooting.  I felt so blessed to have my kids be here safe.  I also felt confused at how someone can be so selfish, evil and devilish to have no real motive and just kill for the heck of it.  One reporter I was listening to said that most five year olds 12 days before Christmas are just thinking about how Santa is going to be in their house in a couple weeks.  Today the Devil came to that school, and now all those children have to live with that.  I agree.  I hurt for those babies who had to grow up too quickly.  I am also grateful for the opportunity it gave me to talk to my Jack about this so he will know what to do if, heaven forbid, something like that ever happens to him.

The final eye opener I had has been almost a week long thing but really struck me tonight.  Our church has taken on 85 families that are in need.  The church members alone took on about 60.  This is when I knew we needed to reach out beyond the church members and ask people to help.  I asked a few of my neighbors, my sister, my mother and had my mother ask a few of their friends.  Because we did it this way, we have had the opportunity to take all these gifts to all these families ourselves.  I have taken 7 so far and have 4 more tomorrow.  My friend brought over her gifts for her family last night.  She had a family of four.  She brought in box after box and gift bag after gift bag.  Then she brought in a laundry basket full of household and hygiene items.  I was humbled immediately by her generosity and time spent wrapping each present to beautiful perfection.  My only wish was that her family would really be one who needed it and who appreciated it.  While driving to the address, we were sure it was wrong.  We were driving through car junkyards and old crumbling factories.  Turns out we were in the right place.  We saw the address and saw four trailer homes that also looked like there was no way anyone could survive in one.  The "road" to get to it was covered with broken roof tile and felt like we were off roading.  This house was the most in need of any we had seen and we had seen some terrible ones.  Their floor was plywood, not carpet or tile.  It was so tiny and they had a grandma on the couch too which we didn't know about.  Their clothes were too small and worn through.  The mother was not there but the father was and he didn't speak one bit of English.  The children were darling and so excited and grateful.  They had a little white barren Christmas tree in the corner where we piled the boxes.  Still as we left we wondered if we did enough.  We said a silent prayer for this family and all the other families who are so destitute.

Another family we went to had four children and the mother was crying and pretty quiet the whole time.  The kids were so excited.  They had nothing.  There wasn't even a toy on the ground when we entered.  You should have seen this little girl when she opened her Barbie.  She never had had a Barbie and here my daughter has about 20.  We got a text from her after saying how sorry she was that she didn't thank us more.  She said she was speechless.  She said the kids had lost their dad last February and she went from being a stay at home mom to working 40+ hours a week. She lived on a really busy almost highway in a square adobe "house."  We have prayed for her too.

It is interesting because about half of the families were extremely grateful.  One even invited us in for nachos.  The other half seemed to not be as grateful.  They would say, "Put them over there.  Thanks Bye."  Maybe they don't express themselves as well.  Maybe they are going through a harder more cynical time.  Maybe they have lost all hope.  It made me think though.  How often does my Heavenly Father give me an amazing gift that I almost pass over or don't notice or don't offer up the appropriate thanks?  How does that make our Father in Heaven feel?  I know I need to be better and more grateful for the incredible abundant blessings I have.  Even the simple things like having a husband who loves me or having a house that has heat or a warm coat for outside.  I don't ever have to wonder if there will be food on the table.  Most importantly though, I know I am a daughter of God who loves me.  I know Jesus wins in the end.  I have hope for the future and His coming to cleanse the earth of the wicked and bound Satan so he has no influence.  I am grateful for many things this day and glad I had these three experiences to wake me up to reality even more.

What are you grateful for today?