Blessed?

Tonight, BYU played Kentucky State in the second round of March Madness. Which was especially exciting since it has been 17 years since we advanced past the first round. It was also the Saturday night session of stake conference. I was not particularly happy about the conflict.

A couple years ago, Dad went to a Saturday night session that was at the same time as an RSL game (away). Real won. Dad said it was a blessing for his having gone to conference.

I went to church tonight. BYU lost 84-72.

It's a shame. In my bracket, I had BYU advancing one more level before losing.

Gratitude

In the fourth book of The Work and the Glory, a newly married couple are living in a sod hut that leaks mud when it rains. The wife suggests that they have a contest to see who can come up with more to be grateful for. They have fun with it, mentioning things like the fact that grass only grows up so they don't have to cut the grass on the ceiling. And at the end, they are both in a much better mood.

I think this is something everybody should probably do more often- look for the good and find the humor in the bad.

Not Room Enough

Today at work, I was transcribing a letter that Rachel wrote to her parents when she was 21. She was talking about how she'd had a good life and great opportunities, and then said that she noticed that the Lord did a lot more for her than she did for him, and she should try to even things out a little.

When I read that, I laughed out loud.

Sometime between thirteen and fifteen years ago, Mom gave a lesson in family night where she gave all of us something- 10 pennies, maybe- to represent blessings from the Lord. Then we were to give some back. But as soon as we gave something back, she would give us more. Much more than we tried to repay. So we would hand more back, only to receive an even greater amount of blessings.

And that's the way it really is. You can't try to pay the Lord back. You will just keep getting farther and farther in debt.

Cheer?

My roommate Tasha often puts inspirational quotes as her facebook status. Today, she had, "I find comfort in the reality that we are sent to mourn with those that mourn. We are not sent to cheer them up." -Melissa Y

And that got me to thinking. When I'm down, a lot of the time the best thing to cheer me up is a distraction completely unrelated to whatever is bothering me. And sometimes that can be a good thing. But eventually, I need to face my problems- either to come to terms with it or to find a solution or just go to work, doing whatever I've known all along needs to be done but haven't wanted to. And that generally is not exactly cheering. But it is what has to be done.