Happy Thoughts

I was inspired to write this post today by our pastor, Jeff. I read his blog every morning before I start my day. He has some great tips, thoughts, experiences and some very funny stories.

Today he talked about "happy thoughts". How sometimes we let the bad thoughts take over our minds and ruin our day--our happy thoughts are pushed aside. It really made me think about all the times that has happened to me--especially recently. Why is it that we can dwell so long on bad things in our lives, but we never really celebrate the good things like we should? It's kind of like, why can't ice cream and sweets and all the good fried foods be the stuff we should eat instead of the stuff we shouldn't. Maybe it's not like that at all, but that came to mind for some reason. ; )

So anyway, yesterday someone said something at church that bothered me. It shouldn't have and the person that said it, meant no harm. But I didn't take it well. Bad thing. I sang in the Gospel Choir at 11:15 and my heart just wasn't in it. And the ironic thing about it was, one of the songs we sang was "Oh Happy Day". It was the last song we sang and I realized as I was walking off the "stage", that I didn't feel happy at all. I had let the bad thoughts in my head affect something that usually causes me so much joy. Bad thing.

So I come home and I sit down and turn on the TV--I did not have the motivation to do anything else. Bad idea.

There was nothing good on TV at 11:30 yesterday, but something caught by eye as I was "channel surfing". It was a show on the Discovery Health Channel. The name of the show was Truth Be Told and it was 3 different stories about 3 different people with very rare medical conditions that they had to deal with on a daily basis just to get through a day. All three of them were just heartbreaking, but one really got to me. It was a young girl, 14 years old, who had some kind of condition where the skin over much of her body would blister up and peel away causing infections (if not taken care of immediately) and obviously, a very embarassing sitution for her. She had had it most of her life, but as she came into her teens, it became more of a "social acceptance" thing rather than just the medical condition.
Her mother spent 40 hours a week popping the huge blisters on her body, giving her chlorine and vinegar baths, and then bandaging her body from her feet up to her neck. The girl had lost her fingers due to this condition so she just had little nubs on her hands and couldn't help with her own care. The family spent over $50,000 a year on bandaging supplies alone. One room of their home looked like a hospital supply closet.
It was almost unbelievable.

This particular show was about the young girl attending an 8th grade dance. She had a couple of very close girlfriends and a crush on a boy at school, so she was very excited about going to this dance. You can just imagine what kind of preparations had to be made for this and the show took you through the entire process. The girl was able to wear a "spaghetti strap" dress, but she was bandaged from shoulders to feet, where she needed to be. In addition to all the bandages, her mother also did her hair and make-up. The young girl looked so pretty and so happy. HAPPY. Can you even imagine someone in this position being "happy"?

OMG

Why do we complain about ANYTHING? I sat there and cried like a baby. I have 3 wonderful, healthy daughters, 3 beautiful, healthy grand children. I'm healthy--physically, some wonder about my mental health, but I have nothing in my life that could even compare to what this girl and her family have to deal with on a daily basis. And yet, they were happy.

The last scene in this show was the mother standing outside the auditorium doors peeking in at her daughter who had just been asked to dance by the boy she had a crush on. The mom was crying tears of joy. I was crying tears of guilt or possibly shame.

What a wake up call to see the good in everything--everyday. It's a challenge I hope I can meet.

Footnote:

AN EPIPHANY!! As I was attempting to re-read this post for editing, I realized that God spoke to me yesterday. He pointed out while I was singing Oh Happy Day, that I needed to realize that it really was. He led me to that TV show, which led me to a new way of thinking. Then he led me to Jeff's blog which, in turn, inspired me to write this. Knowing this makes me very happy.