Count Your Many Blessings...

Today at church, we had phenomenal speakers. The first was a young man that we have seen grow up in the past four years. He is going into the MTC to begin his mission. We are SO proud of him! Then, our concluding speaker was a man who has had many trials in his life. He lost a nephew who was two years old to a brain tumor. Later, he lost his nine-year-old daughter to a brain tumor. And even later, as he was preparing to send another daughter out on a mission, she started having bad headaches. The day before she was to report into the MTC, she had an MRI which confirmed a fourth of her brain was invaded by tumors. She has since passed away. This brother went on and on about lessons that he has learned in his life. Then, at the end, as he is bearing his testimony, he tells us that he too has a brain tumor and has been given 6 to 18 months to live. He had just been to a disciplinary council in his stake, and was heartbroken by what he had had to witness. He instructed us to "treasure our spouses" and to "not be consumed by getting things of the world." He said that "...it is amazing, every thing that he had ever worked for in his life, he has given away" because it is not as important as his family and the Gospel.

After being incredibly touched by this, I have been pondering the many blessings in my life. I truly have A LOT to be grateful for!! I have a friend that I am going to see tomorrow morning who's husband is suffering from kidney failure right now. I have another friend who took years to get pregnant, finally got pregnant, gave birth to a completely healthy child, and within two hours of his birth, he started having breathing complications and passed away.... It's not to say that I haven't had trials in my life....but, right now, in this second, I am really grateful that the trials that I have been called to bear seem minimal compared to others'.