Be Thankful.

Last night as I was walking around my house at 3am due to some pretty painful contractions, I started looking at all of the things God has blessed us with in our home.  And not just the fun, decorating things that I mention so often on Tuesday blogs, but something more…

I was reminded of how lucky we are to even have a house, to have so many rooms to walk around in when we can’t sleep at night.  To have a kitchen with food in it, running water, the ability to laundry in the comfort of our home.  So many people live without these things every day.  When I was a young teenager, I went on several mission trips to Central American countries, and as a fourteen year old girl, my eyes were opened wide to the reality of this world:  we really don’t need all of these things we have.  People can actually survive without a TV, without a blow-dryer, without the internet!!

Throughout my time in those countries, I learned so many valuable lessons, but this one about unnecessary material things was probably one of the biggest.  Those little kids who ran up to the church, barefoot, in the same clothes day after day, were no less happy than the kids running around my neighborhood here, with their iPods and their shoes to match every outfit they own.  They are a world apart, but yet they are all the same—they are kids.  Some of them live in two story homes, like my boys, and others live in a little “house” made of mud and discarded billboard signs (yes, that is where many of them lived…)

So I guess this post is two-fold.  First, let’s try to remember every time we wash our dishes in our sink, or take a long hot shower, that there are so many people in this world who don’t have these luxuries in their life.  And second, instead of feeling guilty about what we do have here, let’s just take a few minutes each day to be thankful.  I know that I could do this a lot more…I guess all I need are a few nights of being woken up by painful contractions and aimless wandering around my house!