It could have been me...

A change of perspective can be an enlightening thing, can't it? What looks to be one way can quickly appear another way in a split second.

Take, for instance, my weekend.
It started Thursday evening.
With the stomach flu.
I was up all night, and totally exhausted on Friday. Could I count the hours till hubby got home to help me? NO! He was gone fishing for the whole darn weekend. Yes, that left moi to fix meals and drag the kids to Toys R US for birthday party gifts that were needed for the next morning. Saturday was spent shuttling kids to parties. Sunday, I was so tired, we didn't even make it to church. I had a sinkful of dishes, the house was messy, and I had a sitter coming over because I had to go do an open house for a client. After shopping for goodies, and lighting candles, and doing everything I could to make a nice open house, guess who came?
(go ahead, guess.......)
NO ONE.
Not one single person came.
My head was killing me, and I was so irritated that I'd wasted my afternoon.
What a lousy weekend!

Here's another perspective:
Hurricane Ike came through Texas this weekend. Thousands of people were told to flee from their homes. Some of those people were our family members and friends. The Galveston area is where Ryan is from, and other than his parents, his whole family still lives there. We got email updates from friends who were leaving their homes, knowing that there may not be anything to go back to. We worried about the family business - a fish farm - that it would be devastated.
Sunday we got the news that the family was all fine. The fish farm had been damaged, but was not ruined. One of our friends lost her home. Tons of other people are still waiting to be rescued.
That was their weekend.
It could have been me.

How would I have coped? What would it be like to leave my home, and all my belongings, knowing that there would be nothing to return to?
Take a quick look around you right now. (GO ahead......look!) Are you sitting in a comfortable chair? Surrounded by family pictures? Toys scattered around, a fridge full of food, a closet full of clothes? Imagine that, in the blink of an eye, it was all gone. Difficult, isn't it?
Please pray for all the people who are dealing with this unimaginable disaster.

Meanwhile, the sun was shining here today. My kids didn't get sick. I get to sleep in my own bed.
I think I had a pretty good weekend, after all.