Count Your Blessings

You know the hymn, Count Your Blessings? We sang it at church this morning. And the funny thing is, I didn't have to be reminded this time, because I've been counting my blessings lately.

Blessings can be easy to overlook, especially if one has gotten in a habit of looking at the dark side of life. Lately I've been kinda down because my boyfriend and I broke up. Plus I'm working a lot of hours and it's hard for me to find a margin to take a break in.

But yesterday I had a day clear of activities (finally). I spent some time yesterday morning just thinking about all the things that the Lord has given me. I'm healthy. I have a job. I can pay all my bills and buy pretty much anything I want. I have a running car. I have a house that's my own. I have parents who love me and help me out all the time. I have brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law, a sister-in-law, and nephews and nieces, all of whom I am on speaking terms with and I can depend on for friendship and love. I have a host of friends who are giving and kind. Thinking about all that, it seems that for me to be down or depressed is a reflection on my bad attitude, and not on my life situation.

Yes, I realize that it's OK for me to feel down sometimes. I'm not saying it's wrong to have a bad day, week, or month, even. I think it IS wrong, however, to wallow in that place. It's wrong for me to drown myself in self-pity. Because I'm not to be pitied. I am greatly blessed. :)

Train Wreck

The train of loneliness
Barreled through, its horn sounding
So loudly, and I didn't see it coming so
I thought I was getting mowed down
At first, but then it wasn't really hitting me,
It hit another person who is me but is not me.

News Stories

I don't know why it was so funny to me, maybe because I have been stressed to the max lately, but today the newspaper was hilarious.

First I read the local paper. There was a story in there about a 92-year-old woman who just had her first novel published. Right in the middle of the article, totally out of context, it said "She has had personal problems all her life." Really. And why is that important? And why would she want the whole county to know that? I started giggling.

Oh yeah, and my DAD had a piece published in the local paper too. The veteran that used to take care of the flags at the cemetery has died, and the piece was a tribute to him plus a invitation for someone else to take on the task. My dad wrote "You could tell he wasn't Baptist because he was too cheerful." My dad is funny.

Then I started to read the Democrat-Gazette. I read about the Amish terrorists. Apparently there has been a feud between these two groups of Amish people, and the one group showed their anger by forcibly cutting off the hair and beards of people from the other group. Amish terrorism... it's scary!

Last of all, I read about the Yellville Turkey Trot Festival. It seems they have a tradition of dropping live wild turkeys from airplanes during the event. Well, as you may have guessed, PETA and the FAA are none too happy with this activity. The FAA has vowed to find the pilots and punish them by taking their licenses away. However, no one in town has revealed the names of the pilots. They "don't know who it is."

Have you read any funny news stories lately? Has the price of gas gone down at your local station? Let me know!