Accepting a Little Help

This week has started out with joy, laughter and thankfulness.

On Sunday, our son, Joe, and his wife, Crystal, and their family hosted a famly dinner at their home. My husband and I were blessed with having all four of our children present. It was a really great day for us.

Monday, a long-time friend stopped by to give me a handmade fleece quilt made by the ladies of the Fort Peck Lutheran Church. The woman who brought it to me said, “We read your article about providing blankets for chemo patients and we’ve been doing that for quite a while. Then the ladies decided they wanted you to have one.” I was humbled by their beautiful gift.

A friend in Iowa posted on her Facebook page about taking a walk through the woods and by the small pond that’s on her property on Sunday. She said that along her walk she saw buds on trees, violets peeking out from under tree leaves, birds flying back and forth between the trees carrying nest-building material. As she continued on, she saw a painted turtle that had died. She stopped for a moment before continuing on her way. Soon several hours had slipped away as she walked along.

Her final comment was, “I didn’t realize how long I’d been walking. But when I got back to my house, I felt relaxed and at peace. I know it was because the only sounds I heard on my walk were those of the life in the woods and that I took time to truly enjoy the beautiful world God created.”

When I reached the end of her post, I thought how often we fail to see how good our lives really are. Yes, people have tough times in their lives, problems that at the moment seem insurmountable, issues that seem to have no solution. What we have in addition far outweighs all of this.

There is always help for us to handle the difficult times in our lives. Help from not only family, friends, neighbors - all of whom care about us and will go out of their way to help us on our journey -- but professional help from counselors, pastors, medical personnel.

All we have to do is be willing to ask for and accept the help that surrounds us. All problems seem smaller when there are two people working to solve them.

May your week be filled with blessings.