No more complaints

I've had a bad case of what I call "scramble brain" for several days.

It has truly been one thing after another last week and this week isn’t looking any better. I haven't been able to put a complete thought together in some time.
It's bad enough that I almost always have one song or another playing in my mental jukebox, but, today I have a snippet of a song stuck on repeat loop, and, it's not even the right words.
I've got part of the refrain of the Rascal Flatts song, What Hurts the Most, going on, but, in my head, it goes like this:

"What hurts the most, is that we're out of toast..."

Truthfully, the "toast" lyrics substitution works nicely with Bad Day, too:

"Where is the moment we needed the most...you kick up the leaves, and, there is your toast..."

I think all this has something to do with the fact that this weekend I stayed up for 26 hours straight. Sleep for a person like me is like pushing the reset button on your computer…it clears up all the syntax errors. I need to be rebooted.

It was for a very good cause though that I missed a lot of sleep. I led a Relief Society team for Relay for Life. Walked on and off for 14 hours right after I put in a full days work. It was hard…but I really have no right to complain.

We have a dear sister in our ward battling cancer. She’s really had a difficult time. To make matters worse her young 6 year-old daughter has cerebral palsy and severe seizure complications. A few weeks ago the daughter had to be put into a medically induced coma to try and control the seizures. This poor family is dealing with this trauma while the mother is simultaneously beginning a new course of treatment for her cancer. The prognosis doesn’t look good.

The Relief Society had hit a point where we wanted to do something more than just take in meals and baby sit the other children in the family. We wanted to show our friend that we love her and that we are inspired by her valiant spirit. She is the epitome of courage, beauty, strength and enduring to the end.

This weekend I had an epiphany as I watched this amazing woman make the effort to come out and walk with the team. You could see the fatigue etched in her always smiling face. You could hear the weakness in her laughter. You could see effort in her graceful walk. When she talked about her family and their ongoing struggles, there was hopefulness and optimism in her speech and countenance. She was not unrealistically hopeful. She was at peace with whatever the Lord had planned for her and her young family. She was just trying to endure to the end. She has firm testimony of “Families are Forever.” She knows without a shadow of doubt that the trials she is enduring now are nothing compared to the glory that awaits her. She is doing her best and she never complains.

Complaining is a disease that infects your soul and limits your ability to effectively cope with your trials and tribulations. Its only when we embrace our trials and stresses and look them squarely in the face that we are able to gain perspective and formulate a plan of action that first includes getting down on our knees and asking for help and guidance from our Heavenly Father.

Complaining is counter-productive. It has yet to solve any problem. I wish I could figure out a way to do less complaining and more enduring with grace and dignity. If I ever figure it out, I’ll share.

Have a good week everyone!