The second event was 'The Hurricane of the Century'. OK, it was a strong storm. People died, and there was widespread destruction. But that didn't happen here in my area. Here's my two or three problems about my local situation: 1. Certain acquaintances of mine panicking about the imminent danger of a hurricane. Those same certain people cautioning about 'being prepared'. Those same people passing along panic warnings admonitions to follow church leaders' counsel about EVERYTHING. They were obsessive and so eager to 'get' to use those 'skills' that they have prepared for. 2. Their dismissal of my advice about what they can expect as a result of the storm. Wind. Rain. Likely power outages. Your house isn't going to blow away. Your car isn't going to be washed down the river. I grew up here. I have been through a couple of hurricanes. It's a lot of hype here. You'll be fine. Srsly. And 3. Their disappointment that the storm wasn't worse. That they only lost power for 20 minutes, if at all. That they hadn't gotten the opportunity to bust out their 72-hour kits. 4. They were so blessed. BARF!
Ummmmmmm................told ya so?
What is a blessing anyway? I mean, really? Where do blessings come from? Who decides who gets blessed and who doesn't? Is it a lottery? Is there something a person can do in order to get blessings? Are there a finite number of blessings available to the world at any given time? Perhaps a triage of sorts? What is it called when people aren't 'blessed'? Cursed? Who deserves to be cursed?
Our house lost electricity for about 13 hours. I have friends who still have no power. Am I better? Or does someone just like me better? Or is it that I could only handle 13 hours and that's why I only had 13 hours without power? Does this blesser like me more than my friends or is it the other way around? Or does the blesser like the people who never lost power in the first place more because they weren't faced with any adversity? But doesn't the blesser give people adversity because he loves them? I'm confused.
The other thing that gets me, is that no matter what the outcome, the message is the same. If nothing terrible happens, then it's a blessing. If something terrible happens, it's a blessing because we heeded the warnings and were prepared. We're so much better than everyone else because we are blessed.
P.S. - Two weeks ago, I discovered Sam Adam's Cherry Wheat. Now THAT'S a blessing. I think I'll go bless myself now.
3 comments:
I don't have an issue with people looking at things as a blessing. If that's what they need to make sense out of a bad situation, so be it. I'm too much of a pessimist to be able to do that myself.
MY issue is with people who attribute their "blessings" to something they did (or didn't do). That implies that you could have had the same blessing if only you had done what they did (or didn't) do.
And the thing is, you can't convince certain people (LDS people, specifically) otherwise because it's right there in the scriptures that EVERY blessing is predicated by obedience to some law.
A glaring example of how wrong I think this is: During a testimony meeting, a woman got up and went on and on about how because her husband was faithful and read his scriptures and did all that he was supposed to do, and because she and her children did the same and prayed for his protection daily, he came home safe from Afghanistan last month. HOWEVER, less than a year ago a member of our ward was killed two weeks after he arrived in Afghanistan. He had been the elder's quorum president before he left. His wife had been in the RS presidency and then moved to the primary presidency. They were a good, faithful family and I'm sure they did all the same things as this other family who didn't have to endure their husband/father being blown to bits on the side of the road.
So, if God protected the one guy because of his faithfulness, why not the other who was equally--possibly more--faithful?
Your kids were all born healthy. One of mine was not. Does that mean you were more deserving of a healthy child than I was? Did you do something right to deserve the blessing that I didn't do?
I think things have consequences. ALL things have consequences. Sometimes the SAME action results in good consequences sometimes and bad consequences other times. We can make educated decisions about our actions to lessen the likelihood of bad consequences, but for the most part life is a crap shoot.
End rant.
I very much agree with both of you. I consider a blessing to be more along the lines of good fortune. I was actually thinking similar thoughts reading the same things you were and had a discussion about it with Matt. Want to know what my emergency supplies were? Coke, cookies, gummy worms, and other treats that I actually shared with the kids. I was planning for a power outage, not Armageddon. I was also going to recommend this, but thought it might not have been appreciated.
I hope you had a lovely blessed night!
The difference is your attitude. Your personal outlook. If you have a good one your life will be rich with blessings.
Some days having a child with special needs is a curse, and other days it is a blessing. The only difference between the days? My attitude.
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