Perspective Moment

Dear Gabriel,

I have a story for you.

This past weekend our car broke down while we were on our way up to Idaho. We made it up here and were in 6 cars in 24 hours. Amazing friends and family dropped their plans to make sure we got where we needed to be when we needed to be there... Along the way I had a 'perspective moment' I need to talk with you about.

When we started out on our '6 car' journey, the car was about one mile out of Cedar City when we had the problem. We limped into town and made it slowly to the Tunex there. It was a little bit after hours, but they were still there and said they would look at it. I sat in the Tunex show room for a while waiting.

While I was there a man was also there with his little boy. He was about 6-7 years old. The boy was just going crazy with energy and quite out of control. He was pretending to be a dinosaur. It was obvious the man was having a hard day and didn't give much attention to keeping his child calmed down. The man's energy was quite low. Many people around were getting quite irritated with him. At first I found myself getting irritated, so I started talking to the boy and getting to know him, which helped to ease any irritation I was feeling.

Well, after about 1/2 hour the man left with his boy and the Tunex guy, Charlie, started looking at my car. He showed me the issue and told me it was going to be about $300 - $400 to fix the car and we couldn't take it anywhere. This was hard for me to hear, especially because we definitely do not have that extra money to fix the car. We had to get on the road to make it to some business appointments. At that point I started making calls to figure out our traveling accomodations. After about another 1/2 hour there weren't very many people around and Charlie and I started talking.

I thanked him for his help and for taking me after hours. Then he said, " No problem. We would have been here anyway. We just got another call about a van breaking down outside of town. Funny enough it is the same van as that man had that was here. I felt so bad for him." Then Charlie got very quiet and said... "His van broke down on his way to California to bury his wife."

Immediately my heart was just stung. I said, "Wow... compared to that man, I am doing pretty good."

Amazing how the Lord helps to put things in perspective very well. I will fish around and find $400 that I don't have any day - as long as I can keep your dad, you and other family around. It was what I call a 'perspective moment'.

Needless to say, no matter how many cars we got in and out of, no matter how upset you got because you had to get back in the car seat AGAIN, no matter how much I missed being around your dad, no matter what came and went I thought about that man. Comparatively, no matter what I was doing pretty good.

Look for 'perspective moments' in your life. They will help you be grateful for anything you are going through.

I love you,

Your Mom