Our house is eleven years old and I love it. I never dreamed my first house, especially in St. George, would be so nice. There may be things I would change, as with any house, but overall I just love my home. Except every Saturday when I vacuum I am reminded of how much I hate the old carpet in the toy room, stairs, and upstairs. I am sure the carpet is as old as the house. And for some reason it is a light beige, which is just a silly choice especially when people actually dare to live in the home. Needless to say, there are quite a few stains on the carpet. I notice them every time I vacuum and it bugs me. One day my dream is to get the rest of the house carpeted like the family and living room. But for now I just "suffer".
As I was vacuuming this week and noticing a few more marks from the kids on the carpet, I started to let myself get annoyed. Then a thought popped into my head "At least you have carpet and in your OWN home." It made me think. This is true. I was focusing on one little part about my house that bugged me and was missing out on the bigger blessing. I mean who doesn't have a few marks on their carpet and if so, who cares? The story of getting our house is surely a blessing and I can't say when it began because I am sure the Lord was preparing us for years to be where we are in life.
I'll start after law school so as to spare you the rest. We had been renting in St. George for a little less than a year and saw no reason to move. We had planned on renting for some time to save up for a house. But then my husband got a bug in his pants about house hunting. He thought we should start and I said "Okay." It was a completely scary process for me (because hello, buying a house is a huge investment), but I trusted my husband's answer to prayers. We found a great house that was nicer than we had hoped for and made an offer. It all worked out for us so that we were able to get the home. Some work needed to be done, especially on the yard, but nothing major. We didn't know at the time that the economy would be struggling so much in the future over house loans and then later bailouts. Had we waited a few months, we probably wouldn't have been able to get the financing we did and be able to buy a house. But we did. And we had no idea my husband would be called as bishop since a new bishop was put in the week before we moved in. Who would have imagined the blessings this calling has brought to our family? It is overwhelming to see how the Lord got us to be where we are, where He needed us to be.
And here I am grumbling about carpet. I think sometimes we forget the bigger picture, the greater blessings in our lives. We get focused on something not being just right and forget the blessings we do have. Being nine months pregnant is very uncomfortable, but I am so blessed to be able to bring life into this world and take part of that sacred process. Or what about our bodies? We complain about them not being perfect, but we have bodies and for the most part they work! Who cares if we don't meet some societal standard, we have a body! We're living and fulfilling our divine destiny! Isn't that an amazing miracle in itself?
Sometimes we just miss the big picture. This can be applied to any aspect of life. I often imagine the Lord smacking his hand against his head and saying "When is she going to get it? When will she stop whining and see the big picture?" Thank goodness He is perfect and, therefore, patient and loving despite my blindness. We are all so very blessed. We just need to overlook the little snags in life, like old carpet, and recognize what blessings we do have.
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