Friday, May 16, 2008

It could be worse

This is my favorite phrase to remind myself and my family to count our blessings. Some people sing the count your many blessings song, others name their blessings one by one, I say it could be worse. This sometimes drives Mike crazy but it's really the only way to sometimes keep myself from going crazy (er) when something that I think is just horrendous happens.

When the roof leaked, I told Mike it could be worse-the whole roof could be falling in or ripped off in high winds. When Kiersten complained about wearing glasses-she could be blind. When Jared complains about having to do homework-he could be in a country where he wouldn't be able to go to school. It's a Pollyannaish attitude I know but it really makes you think sometimes things aren't as bad as we make them out to be in our heads. We have trials, some are big and some are little, but once we get through them we are stronger people.

The whole it could be worse thing came when my mom was going through chemo a few years ago and she was wiped out and tired and hairless. She was telling me one day about this trial and I told her it could be worse, the type of cancer she had is known as a silent killer, you don't know it's there until it's too late. She was lucky to have good doctors that listened to her and found something that could have killed her. Now she is able to play with the babies and watch them grow.

Yes, there are trials where nothing could be worse but hopefully those don't come around too often. I'm not saying that the trials that we go through are meaningless or not acknowledging the severity of said trials, this is just gospel according to me. So, until some other phrase comes along, I'll keep telling myself it could be worse.

Love to all and have a good weekend!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Way to be positive! I need a little more of that in my life. I tend to be cup half empty these days!

Alona said...

Good post. I always tell my kids,...as bad as you have it, someone else has it worse. That never seems to make them feel better but it makes total since to me. Want them to sometimes stop thinking of how bad life for them is when others are homeless and family less and loveless. Really it'll be ok.

Connie said...

You have to spin it however it works for you. Saying it could be worse is better than complaining.
I like it...I think I use it occassionally myself. Because you know I am always positive LOL

Anonymous said...

This is one of my favorite phrases too! In fact, at a recent meeting at work when I said it in response to something my supervisor had said, she looked at me and asked if my nickname as a child had been Pollyanna.