the controversial christian

I’m Rich!

I don’t say this boastfully: I just don’t get people who complain or who are ungrateful.  I come from a family of seven—I know all about being broke and feeling stupid because I couldn’t even afford my senior pictures. I remember the embarrassment of my grandma taking my proofs to Wal-Mart to scan and re-print them.  Illegal as it was, she just tried her best to help me fit in.

Fast-forward to my adult life, when my husband was working a full-time AND part-time job to support our newborn, 4-pound preemie and myself.  Let me paint a clearer picture: his full-time job was welding in 90 degree weather and sometimes he wouldn’t even have time to come home and shower before working his second job.  His part-time job at night paid a mere $8.50 an hour. While it was a daily struggle, we made it and I’m so thankful God saw us through those times.

God is showing me more and more everyday that thankfulness is the key to happiness.  Being grateful for what I have and choosing not to focus on what I don’t is the way to be and stay content. Doris Day once said, “Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.” The saying has never rang more true.

This weekend, I saw my 11-month old baby boy swing for the first time. His beautiful blue eyes lit up along with his two-toothed smile as he swung higher than I have ever seen a baby swing before (without crying, anyway). I also watched my husband so peacefully stand alongside the most serene lake as he fished, and I couldn’t think of even one problem or complaint I had.  Do I have problems? Sure.  Last week, at the same park, I was eaten alive along with my niece Gianna by every mosquito in Virginia! 

Let’s be honest—I do have problems.  We all have problems—but, it’s becoming more and more like second nature to me to realize that joy lies in focusing on the blessings in your life.  Gratefulness is not only appreciating what you have, but being mindful of people and things around you, like the family of the 30 Navy SEALS who no longer have a daddy or son, or the famine in Somalia, where families are LUCKY to have ONE meal a day.  The more I think about it, it makes my stomach turn to be anything but grateful for my life and everything in it, good and bad. 

Take it as a lesson, whiners! Be thankful and stop complaining, before God removes the blessings in your life you don’t seem to acknowledge anyway.