Saturday, May 1, 2010

Perspective

Today was Saturday, and instead of getting to have a day to myself, we had to go help yet another person. This weekend, it was helping someone move. Ugh! We have not even known this person very long, and we had to drive, like, half an hour away to get to her house, and then another half an hour to get to her new place. Meanwhile, she made us make a stop along the way, where the trailer that we were pulling fell into a ditch on the side of the road. Gah! The furniture had to be taken off of the trailer, and we had to block the whole road to tow it back out. What a hassle. When we finally got to leave, it took us almost and hour to get home. By then it was around 3:30 PM. What a waste of a day!

Haha! GOOD GRIEF! Could you imagine if I was really like that?

Here is what actually happened.

There is someone who we met not too long ago who we have gotten to know through church and through our Life Group. We have all enjoyed getting to know her, and she recently was able to find her very own place. Woohoo! She asked us to help since we have a truck, and, of course, we did.

We started the morning with a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon and pancakes with my brother and his wife (who had spent the night Friday) and our friends, Phil and Allen, who are also from our Life Group and came to help with the move.

After breakfast, we went outside and noted what a beautiful day it was. Phil had brought his trailer, which the guys hooked to the back of the truck, and then we hit the road. We had a good time of fellowship and laughter on the way. Our friend only had a few things to move, so we were in and out of there very quickly...even including a trip for Boy to the backyard to see the chickens! (Bummer that we did not have a camera handy for the photo-opp.)

Back on the road, we headed toward the new place. We stopped along the way to pick up a coffee table. Since we pulled up to what appeared to be a long, narrow driveway, we decided to leave the trailer on the road in case there was nowhere to turn around once we got to the top of the driveway. It turned out that that was a good idea because there was nowhere to turn around the trailer. Allen hopped out of the truck to go keep Phil company at the road while Richard, Boy and I followed our friend to the house to get the table.

With the table in the truck, we drove to the end of the driveway to find that the trailer was in a ditch with the hitch pointing toward the sky. What? LOL...apparently the ditch was out of sight when the trailer was being pushed off to the side of the road. No worries, though. The guys got the couch off of the trailer, we got the trailer back on the truck, they put the couch back on the trailer, and we were on our way again. In the truck, we were all laughing and talking about the Bible verse that says that two are better than one. It was a good thing that we were all there together because one person would not have been able to get the trailer out of the ditch.

We followed our friend to her new place, got the truck, trailer, and her car unloaded, and went inside to visit for a few minutes. What an adorable place she has. I can imagine the fun that she is going to have "making it her own."

After that we all HAD to go to Mamma's Pizza & Pasta since we were nearby. The food there is sooo good, and the two brothers who own it/run it are old friends of mine from New York, so we try to support their business. The six of us ate, we talked, we laughed, we had a great afternoon. We bid our friend farewell for the day and headed back home.

What a great day we had with our friends today, those old and those new. It was such a blessing for us to be able to lend a helping hand. We enjoyed the time in the truck together joking around and laughing. Our friend got her move finished and can relax about that. We all made it safely through the activities of the day. Oh, and Richard, Boy and I got to spend the evening at home relaxing as a family. How spectacular is that?

The Moral of the Story: You can choose your perspective.

You can look at your situation and decide how to react to it. You can have a negative attitude or a positive attitude about anything. If you have a negative attitude, are you accomplishing anything besides making yourself miserable? The next time that you find yourself in a situation where you just feel the bad attitude creeping in, stop. Take a deep breath. Think. Is it really that bad? Can you look at whatever is bothering you or annoying you and see that it is possible that the only reason that it bothers you is because of your attitude?

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By the way, Phil looked it up later, and the Bible passage that we were discussing was Ecclesiastes 4:9 and 10.


That certainly suited us today -- in many ways! Hehe.

4 comments:

  1. Perspective IS everything! That's why I've always said "MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!". It's YOUR CHOICES that makes your day. It's your thoughts that dictate your mood. It's not what someone else did. It's how you CHOOSE to react.

    LOVE IT! Glad it all turned out great! Make it a great day!

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  2. Sometimes all we need in life is a little perspective!!

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  3. This is soo true. I have been finding out that in order to do his work I need to make myself available for others. I have been reaching out in the church and making new friends.

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  4. That is wonderful! It is so difficult to make new friends, so good for you for reaching out.

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