First World Problems

I stood in the bathroom, listening to the shower run, tapping my toe impatiently, waiting for the hot water to kick in. No joke it took about 10 minutes. Nathaniel was at work and I was hoping to quickly take a shower before the baby woke up from the darn molars that have been bothering her for what seems like months. So who has 10 minutes to spare waiting for the water to get warm?
"At least you have warm water."
Conviction hit me. And I flashed back to our first year of marriage when we lived in Panama and every shower was cold. We had buckets outside to catch rain water for flushing the toilets, hoping to lengthen the amount of time the running water would last on the missions base where we lived.
I sometimes get a little grumpy about doing laundry in the coin machines here ($2 to finish a load! My quarters disappear so fast...). And then I remember needing to take a taxi down to the laundry mat and sit there while it finished. Here I can just walk down the hall and leave it there and return when it's done.  
Our life before was NOT bad at all! It's just now, we are more comfortable. Inconveniences that I let get under my skin sprout from being ungrateful. When in reality we are SO blessed. It helps me so much when I start to complain if I stop and put things into perspective.
How so many other people live.
What so many other people are going through.
How many people are hungry, scared, and alone.

And that will knock me off my high horse so quickly. First world problems are not problems. They are inconveniences that many other people wish they could be inconvenienced with.

I will chose to be grateful. Even if I have to be reminded everyday.

"It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Your name... to declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness every night." —Psalm 92:1-2

It's Just A Water Bottle

How often does God do something for us and we just don't even notice? Do we look for Him in the everyday things? I often tell my kids that God wants us to talk to Him about EVERYTHING. Even those things that seem so small that you figure He wouldn't care anyway because He has pretty important things to worry about. Like the world. So Lately I have been working to put this into practice. Driving around in a parking lot that is full and waiting for a spot. When someone finally leaves instead of thinking how we wish it had been faster, we tell God thanks for providing a spot, it's even more exciting when it's shaded! I want to show the kids how God works in all things. These last couple of weeks I failed in this area. The quarter was ending and we knew there was limited space on base for staff. Since our school has just ended, I was really nervous they would tell us we needed to find a place off base, yet nothing had opened up yet that we could afford. When they told us they had room I was SO relieved. Then they told me which room. And I failed. I was upset. It was exactly where I was hoping they would not put us. The building that I was sure had no breeze, just from looking at it. The room was dirty. (It had been unoccupied for quite some time), and most of all, we would have to do a lot of work to get over there.
So here I was praying God would provide a place for us to stay on base, and then I turned around and threw it back in His face. UGH. I feel terrible just thinking about it. After venting and sharing a bunch of my childish attitude. I started cleaning the room where we would be staying. Through coffee and cleaning God started working on my heart and I began to see all of the good things about the new room. New sink, new shower, the sun doesn't pound into the windows in the afternoon, better mattresses, the parking lot is closer, and BEST of all, we are over an office. That means at night when the kids want to jump around. It's fine!! Truly we upgraded, and now that I can see it, I am so grateful. I just wish I would have looked for the good  in the beginning.

Now this issue, is not nearly as pressing as a place to live. Not at all. But I went to God with it anyway. I like to have a water bottle by my bed. One with a straw! I had one like this but Alinah ended up braking it and I was pretty bummed. Do I buy another? Nah. We have a bunch of cups I should really just use those. But I'm actually lazy enough that I hate to sit up when I am thirsty at night and I inevitably ended up getting kind of wet because I'd try to lazily sip it without doing any work. This is a trivial thing. And I could have just bought a water bottle but I kept thinking it was just too silly that I didn't want to use a cup, so I just waited. Nathaniel had a day off the other day and we went to the small county fair on the other side of the island. Lo and behold, one of the prizes we won at the Geico booth where the kids spun a wheel, was a water bottle! With a straw! I knew God was taking care of the little things. Even though it was silly, it was something I really wanted.
Don't just go to Him with the big things. Go to Him with ALL things. I'm not saying you'll just start getting free stuff. Just know that He cares about all of the details. Maybe He is already working on some things and you just haven't realized it was Him yet. I could have easily passed off the water bottle as a coincidence, but I love thinking of it as a little gift. Don't just say thank you for the big things... Say thank for you for even the smallest.