Sunday, November 25, 2007

Count your blessings

Today at church, the youth speaker mentioned one of my stories that he remembered from a Sunday School lesson I gave. I thought I'd share it with you.

My dad and I went back to Bulgaria a few years ago. Not many people there have cars since they are expensive to buy and keep up (gas, maintenance, etc.). We spent most of the time in the small town of his birth visiting with his brother and family (tons of cousins). The last week there, we were going to travel about 3-4 hours north to spend the final week with his niece. My cousin arranged for us to hire a friend of hers to drive us to Ivanka's house. There were 5 of us in the car: the driver, my dad, my cousin, her 10 year old son, and myself.

We had been traveling less than an hour when Itso (my 10 year old cousin) starting getting car sick. We had to pull over so he could get sick and almost as soon as he got back in, the car began to make horrendous noises. I don't know what was wrong with it, but we literally couldn't go faster than 15 mph.

My cousin is sick, the car is driving so slowly, my dad is getting worried, I'm hot....just not a good experience. The longer we drove at that annoyingly slow pace, the more irritated I got. I kept focusing on all the bad going on at that point--the smell of sickness, the heat without air conditioning, the loud car noise, the slow speed, etc. I was getting in a royal tizz.

Finally a thought came to me. I should count my blessings. I remembered all the stories we've heard about how if you count your blessings, you'll be able to see the good in your life. Blah, blah, blah. Since I had nothing better to do, I decided to try it. I started with the obvious. I'm not the one who is sick. At least we have a car (even if it is slow). I'm grateful to be in this country with my dad. I am grateful for the Gospel. And on I recited.

Soon I began to run out of the obvious. I had to start thinking--grateful for education, job, my own car, never starving, etc. I then had to get creative. I'm grateful I didn't have to pick the weeds on the side of the road. I'm grateful that English is an easier language to speak (at least for this native speaker). I'm grateful I used the restroom before we left and I don't have any drinking water with me. I got so creative that I began cracking myself up. At one point my Dad asked me what was so funny. No way would he understand that my gratitude for strong thighs to hold me up while using the primitive bathrooms in Bulgaria was such to make me laugh. "Just thinking, Dad!" I replied instead.

Although the negative issues hadn't disappeared (the car still made lots of noise, Itso actually hurled in the back seat, the temperature rose to over 100 degrees), my attitude had changed. I was actually able to see the humor in this situation and realized that it wasn't that bad. We were able to get to our destination on time, Itso recovered, and I just sweat more to cool off. The miracle came in my perspective and outlook. It was a lesson that I learned and have been able to apply since that time.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

(Beef! You will be proud of me. You have been marked!)
I had to leave yesterday to take #1 daughter home and missed Luth's talk. I heard it was good but that did nothing for my knowledge of the topic. Thanks for sharing your story. I had to think of what I would have done in a time like that because I know we have all been there. I will remember your words of wisdom. (I love your stories - do tell more!)

Beefche said...

Holy Cow! The end is near! Darae has learned to leave a comment! I am duly impressed. :)