akabl

That's the code I just had to type in to leave a comment on another blog :-)

So I had this idea for what I was feeling, and then I realized it's an awful lot like an awful chain e-mail thing I've gotten before. (note: by "awful chain e-mail" I mean that I dislike chain e-mails in general, but this one had a good message.)

Why do I have such problems expressing to people how much I appreciate them? I do it WAY more now than I ever used to (even just a year ago or so), but it's still way hard for me! Easier though...

I love my problems! How lucky am I to be worrying about getting assignments done on time?? How lucky am I that I get frustrated that I type the word "efficient" wrong half the time, that I oftentimes find myself doing nothing in my apartment alone, that I have no food in my cupboards, and that the guys upstairs love Dance Dance Revolution too much??

If the world were a village of 100 people, I would be one of seven in the village who have a computer to type "efficient" wrong on, and the ONLY ONE worrying about getting assignments done for a university! I'm one of eight who has money in a bank, my wallet, and spare change at the same time. (I need to leave the computer and go grocery shopping... p.s. it turns out I spell "grocery" wrong a lot too.)

The Lord gives everyone their own problems to deal with, but nothing that is more than they can live with. I wrote a paper from 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec 10 until 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec 11, stopping only for about an hour and a half total to eat and shower, only to find out three minutes before class started that the printer in the Tanner Building wasn't working. Having remembered the lesson from MCom about problem solving (not giving our problems to someone else to solve), I ran back to class to verify that the paper was due within the first 10 minutes of class, ran up the 90 stairs on the Tanner Building and across the street (this doesn't sound like much unless you've recently tried doing it 29 hours after having woken up) to print the paper off, ran back, and turned it in. I really had to work until the last second to get this blasted assignment done on time. But it wasn't more than I could handle.

How many people in the world would love to do what I did yesterday? Well, if it were a village of 100 people, about 99 of them. Not 100 though. Usually the 1 person complains about the toll school is taking on them.

I love my problems! Life could have been so much less generous to me.

The Lord gives us the trials we have to test and stretch us, so I don't think belittling the difficulties we face is really the best way to learn from them. But I sure appreciate that I have the problems I do, because it means I'm not suffering in ways most of the world is.

I'm going to go shower in warm water, choose what clothes I want to wear, eat something (I don't think we really understand what it means to have NO food in the cupboards...), drive in my car to the store that is within walking distance to buy food, and then plan what to do with all my spare time today.

Today, 100 people want to fret about getting assignments done on time.