I Get To

 It's funny how you can learn great lessons in the most unlikely places and unexpected times. While watching Say Yes To The Dress on TLC one day, I learned an unexpected lesson about being grateful for our many everyday blessings and privileges. The show featured a young woman who was just discharged from the hospital for a gunshot wound to her back that left her paralyzed from the waist down. She was just crossing the street with a friend one day, then bang! her whole life was changed by one stray bullet. Now here she was, her first day out of the hospital, looking for her wedding dress for a life with her soon to be husband that was going to be very different from what she had planned. She said something about how she would give anything to just be able to stand up one more time again and I suddenly felt very guilty for the many, many things I take for granted every moment of my life. Like the use of my legs and being able to stand and walk whenever I want to. It really opened me up to the fact that I have so much more to thank God for with each new moment, than I will ever be able to truly thank Him for. So now, as an attempt to have a more grateful attitude, when I run through the things I have to do or get done each day, I try to say, "I get to" instead of "I have to". I get to make the beds. I get to do the laundry. I get to change my sons diaper. I get to clean the house. I get to make dinner. I get to raise my children. I don't have to do these things, I get to do them and I am blessed with an endless amount of these beautiful burdens.