paper towels

Last night while I was cooking dinner I went to grab a paper towel to do a quick wipe up and my heart jut burst with thankfulness for those paper towels. I know, that sounds completely ridiculous. Let me give a little back ground for you to understand.

There are a lot of times I give myself a little mental pitty party about what I do without in terms of convenience. To be honest sometimes cooking can seem like such a chore here because we do without a lot of things that make cooking in the States so much easier. Every once in a while I like being able to pop open a can of green beans and be done with it. I like going and buying my ground beef in its nice sanitary little package. And I like being able to have cereal on demand (especially during my WIC days) to give the boys for breakfast. But life is just different here. The green beans must be bought at the market and then soaked and washed to make sure to get all the pesticides off (which have no regulation on them so they are most likely harmful to humans as well as insects). I have to go to the Muslim beef seller, pick out a cut of beef and have it ground up by the grinding lady. And cereal must either be brought or ordered from the capital city.

Things are just different. I have access to a lot but it isn't always in the most convenient form. And I forget to be thankful that I even have access to it. I have co-workers in different parts of the world that can't get even half of what I can and when I looked at my roll of paper towels last night I was reminded of that. I can scoot on over to the Wal Mart, though very different from American WMs, and buy my nice tidy three pack of paper towels any day of the week. I can buy sliced cheese. Diapers and wipes. Shampoo. Even a new cute purse if my wants get ahold of me. The Lord reminded me that life isn't supposed to be convenient. Being a Christian isn't convenient. So when I start to whine to myself next time I'm gonna go get my roll of paper towels and carry them around until I stop feeling sorry for myself. I am blessed beyond measure and I don't want to forget it again.

Thank you Lord for paper towels. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18