an important lesson

Well, sometimes things happen which make you think more and more about things of the faith persuasion. Early this morning, I was stressing over finances and making everything happen by the end of this month that we wanted, and fretting over having to dip into savings for certain things, and before we left for church, Jackie and I talked about it. She gets me, and knows how intense and serious I can get about these things, so she was very understanding, but just reminded me to keep things in a little perspective...i.e., we have a home, we can pay our bills, we have jobs, we have savings we can dip into, and so on.


Then off to church. A couple weeks ago our church started having two services, so we now go to the second service after we go to our Sunday school class for some fellowship time. So while we are at the class and people are sharing, one of the other couples, who have a few kids, asked for prayers that the father would find a job soon. He has probably been out of full time work for 3 months or more if my memory serves right, and from what they were saying, just completed some training to start driving trucks and was asking for prayers that he would get a call soon and get an assignment, and his wife echoed the same, requesting prayers that something would happen soon.

Talk about having that perspective handed to you in big, bold writing. These are excellent people, with kids, struggling to get by and asking for prayers, prayers so that they can continue to provide for their children and themselves. And not provide things like I was thinking about, things such as birthday presents and having to use savings to pay for gas due to some extra driving we are taking to visit friends. Rather, provide things like food and clothes and such for their family, necessities that can't be “cut out” of one's spending habits to be more fiscally responsible.

It was a great and timely lesson for me to remember my personality, remember that I tend to get obsessive and over-serious about these types of things, and make them bigger stresses than they really are. A lesson to remember those in our community that are not as fortunate, that have much more real and pressing concerns than the random things that stress me out. A lesson to be more aware of those around me, to be more giving in charity, and to be more grateful for the abundant blessings that are present in my life. A great lesson for how important perspective is in how we view our struggles, and our ability to help those around us.

So while I need to remember why I was stressing, to initiate change on the handling of our finances, I also need to remember the luxury and the blessing that is inherent in being able to stress about things at the level I am stressing at, as compared to dealing with much more serious struggles. And its important to remember this feeling, and use it as an impetus to continue that constant struggle and journey to become a better, more generous, more charitable, and more positive person.