Keep Positive, things could be worse . . .

You know that I have been listening to stories from my friends and family lately regarding their finances and troubles with money in general, and my husband constantly reminds me, "it could be worse."  I always nod, yes, he is right, but I never really take the time to consider what part could be worse.  When he says it, I completely agree, but it's just a hypothetical and doesn't seem to keep me from wallowing later on.  This past Sunday we were sitting in church, we had dropped our toddler off in the nursery, but I always keep our infant with me so that I can make sure her needs are met.  This isn't always easy, and I do try to keep her as quiet as possible, regardless of what the people around me think.  As I was rocking and feeding and rocking her, I heard the pastor start to talk about brooks drying up in our lives.  He metaphorically compared a brook drying up to unemployment, loss of a house, or less opportunities and money as before.  My husband and I looked at each other eerily, and my focus went back to the pastor.  I was thinking about things that we had lost over the last few years. 

We make less money, we are on a tighter budget, bills seem to be growing by the minute, and I feel like my brook has begun to dry up.  With that I listened more closely, as the pastor singled out a man in the church with his wife.  He told the story of this man fighting a very aggressive form of cancer, and how he has been told by doctors that there is not much more they can do for him.  Tears filled my eyes as I held my infant closer.  He told of the good times in this man's life and how the man is feeling that his brook is drying up.  Hard times have befallen him and he doesn't know why.  Once the tears started to come, I could not stop them.  I was crying for this man, but also crying because of how selfish I felt.  Here I was in church worrying about our income growing smaller, when a few rows ahead of me, a woman was worrying that her husband is dying.  It touched me, and it make me realize how small my problems really are in comparison.  Yes, I will continue to save money and work toward my goal, but I also need a reality check from time to time to remind me that things could be so much worse.