PREFACE: I am not writing this to make myself sound better than anyone else. I am writing this because I hope that after you read this, you can say the same about yourself.
A couple days ago my friend Carter asked me how I was always so happy...
I thought about my answer for a long time before responding. I have always been a happy person. I smile so often that if I am ever not smiling, people automatically assume I am upset about something. My friends at college say they have never seen me upset. I have never really realized that I was strangely happy until I came to college.
The answer that I ended up giving was, "I have no right to be unhappy."
I have so many things to be thankful for.
-An amazing family (extended family included)
-Better friends than I could have ever dreamed of
-I am attending a University where the Bible is a required textbook
-If I kept going you would never be able to read this whole blog so I will stop while you are so interested
More than the things that I am thankful to have though, are the things that I am thankful that I do not have.
-I have no mental or physical handicaps
-Neither of my parents have walked out on me
-I have never had to experience the pain of divorce
-I don't have to worry where my next meal will come from
-I do not have to live in the streets
-I am not in prison
-I don't have to worry about taking care of a baby as a single mother
There are so many people in this fallen world that have to deal with much worse issues than I can imagine. I am not in any way trying to say that I am better than people with these issues, but I do think that since God has not allowed me to go through these trials, I have no right to be unhappy. If I were to find something to complain about it would be so petty in comparison to what most of the people on this Earth have to deal with every second of their life.
More than all of this though, I have a confidence that Jesus Christ died for my sins so that I can spend eternity in a place that is amazing beyond my imagination instead of the pits of hell where I deserve to be.
I hope that you can examine your life and be encouraged by what you find (and don't find). Count your blessings. I'm guessing that you will find that you have no right to be unhappy either.
Winter Jam came to Omaha and some of my friends waited in line for 3 hours at the door. (they were the first ones in line) We made spaghetti and brought it to them so we wouldn't feel like such jerks when we butted in line with them.
We had front row seats! I remember being about 6 years old and having a crush on Phil Joel.
Group 1 Crew was there. They have been my favorite band for the last 3 years and no one else had even heard of them.
My family also came to see me this weekend!!!!!! But I didn't take any pictures. Maybe I can get some from my mom.
So, the second day I got back from break I was sitting on my bed and all of a sudden I heard a nasty gurgling sound come from my sink. I ran over to see that It was filling itself up (from the drain) rather quickly. My RA was not in her room, and no one helpful was on my hall, so for the next several minutes I made mad dashes from the sink to the shower carrying trashcans full of water. yay. Finally someone from a different hall walked by and came to my rescue. We got the water shut off, and the next day there was a strange man in my room when I walked in from class. It turned out to be maintenance, but I was rather startled. This is the note he left me...
Encouraging right? Well turns out "as soon as I can find some pieces" meant, maybe in two weeks I'll come look at it again... so after a long series of strange men appearing in my room, I now have a fixed sink! WooHoo!
