Surviving our greatest blessings

I need to give credit where credit is due (and possibly mandated by law!). The title of this post is from a talk given by Emily Watts, a mother and an editor for Deseret Book who often speaks at the popular "Time Out for Women" events around the country. She has written 2 books: _Being The Mom_, and _Take Two Chocolates and Call Me in the Morning_. I highly recommend both books. Anyway, she and I were chatting once about this talk she gives, called "Surviving your greatest blessings". I haven't actually heard the talk, but I'm sure it's fabulous. She says that two of our greatest blesssings are also two of our greatest challenges: our bodies and our children. We followed the Lord's plan to come here to earth to get a body, and yet so many of us struggle so much when it comes to bodies. And, of course, we all love our children and are grateful for them, but somedays you just need a break! So I've been thinking about that lately. I think originally Emily was talking about body image issues, how none of us are completely satisfied with the one that we got, but lately I'm thinking about it from a different angle. I've talked before about some health issues that I have had, and other administrators on this blog, as well as some of the commentors, have alluded to other serious health issues, too. Sounds like we are all sort of a sick bunch. And it's hard to be sick. It's hard to have a doctor tell you that your body is not functioning the way that it's supposed to. It's hard to realize that you can't do the things that other people can do, or have the things other people have. And it's hard to come to terms with a situation that you have really very little control over, either because God hasn't let you in on His plan, or your HMO gives you people like Dr. Ugly Teeth to work with. So in dealing with being sick, I'm trying to put it all in perspective, and try to understand what my Heavenly Father would have me do with it. And I think I have an answer. God wants, above all, me to rejoice. There are other things as well, but I think this is the key, the big one. So I'm going to rejoice. I can poop and pee without pain--REJOICE! I can brush my hair without it falling out--REJOICE! I can walk up the stairs in my house--REJOICE! I can eat solid food--REJOICE! I can brush my own teeth--REJOICE! I can put on my own pants and tie my own shoes--REJOICE! I can lick chocolate icing off my cheek when I'm stuffing chocolate cake in my mouth--REJOICE! The list can go on, and making a list like that makes me feel like my body may be in pretty good shape, especially since I know people who CAN'T do the things I just listed. So it may be simple and silly and sound sort of like a primary lesson, but I think the answer to surviving our greatest blessings is to rejoice in them. Completely. Always. Now, if I could just remember that the next time Jacob colors on the walls.... Hey, he's artistic--REJOICE!