The Lord's Hand in putting things into perspective..

So anyway in case you guys didn't catch on last week was a bit hard for me with the kids getting sick and getting down on myself for not reaching my sometimes unrealistic expectations of myself. Well the Lord must have seen fit to pull me out of my "Woe is me" attitude and He did so in a very interesting way. Some may call this a coincidence but I think it was more some tender mercies from Him. My first tender mercy came when I heard President Uchtdorf's talk at the General Women's Relief Society meeting on Saturday night. It was amazing!!! I felt like he was saying all of the things I needed to hear but I also imagine that many women watching felt the same way. My next tender mercy came at Wal Mart in the check out line. I was putting all of my grocery items on the conveyor belt or whatever it is called and there was a nice lady behind me who looked like she was in her 60s. Anyway, Clark started coughing a little bit (they still have little coughs) and I covered his mouth and told her, "Sorry. they are pretty much better but they still have little coughs. No one ever told me how often kids get sick." She then said, "Yeah I know. My 14 month old granddaughter has cancer and she has two older siblings who are in school and get sick and bring stuff home to her and she is not supposed to get sick." I immediately felt very humbled. Here I was feeling sorry for myself that my kids had croup, an ear infection, and a throat infection, and her granddaughter had cancer. I asked her if she was going to be ok and she said she was expected to survive and they just had to be careful to not get her sick while she was receiving treatment. All of a sudden I realized I needed to be thankful for all I have. Life can be hard for all of us but this experience put into perspective how small my current problems were compared to some other people. And I'm trying to remember not to resist problems or just every day annoyances because they are a part of life and the plan to help us become stronger. I love this quote I just read in a Dr. Laura book and I think it is so true, "The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem." -Theodore Rubin. We all have problems or as I said in a mental health presentation I did for enrichment a month or so ago, "We all have issues." We all have our personal internal struggles and our outward demons to fight. But I'm trying to instead of pushing against problems to just accept them and deal with them the best I can. But it is a struggle for me. Especially since having children I think that every moment with them should be wonderful, happy, you know the type of moments that you see on Hall Mark commercials. But that is just not always the case. There are many moments like these but there are also many moments that are not. There are times when Savanna is screaming that she will not go in time out or that the dinner got burned or I'm struggling with the whole "I'm just a mom" mentality. (I love staying at home don't get me wrong and feel it is the personal right decision for our family but I do miss working in my field sometimes.) But I'm grateful that every day is a new day and I can try to be a little better each day. Because that is really all that is expected of us I believe. Just to try every day to be a little better. Anyway, I'm done. I've been a bit introspective and emotional lately so of course it has shown up in my blog because you all know how good I am at keeping my thoughts to myself...hehe.