This morning as I started my day and was in my room drinking coffee, I heard one of my siblings go into our bathroom and say “Oh it stinks in here again”. Now, you might find it odd that I bring this up, and you’ll probably find it even more strange when I tell you that this comment made me realize that I was going to miss the unpleasant smell. Now I promise that I’m not a crazy person who enjoys stinky bathrooms, this comment my sibling uttered made me realize something.
I’m heading off the field and back to America in barely over a month, and I’m trying to prepare myself for re-entry. While I’m very thankful for the convenience of life in the states, I also know that life there tends to be very spoiled and very self centered. This mindset many of us have is unrealistic. The mindset that things should always go well for us, that we should have an easy ride through life, and that things should never “stink”. America is a blessed nation, but I believe that these blessings are being taken for granted more and more. Now you might be thinking, “May, how on earth does this have anything to do with bad smells in bathrooms??” Here’s my answer to that.
How often do you go into a home in the states and find a stinky bathroom? How many Americans take that for granted? If a bathroom stinks it is quickly fixed. Convenience and quality has become a way of life, but that also means that in a sense life becomes less realistic. If we take the clean and pleasant things for granted in life then where is the appreciation? When hard things come we think things are unfair. In countries where people have less, they tend to be more thankful. Stuff doesn’t make you happy. Convenience isn't going to make you happy at the end of the day. What makes us happy and fulfills us is when we are thankful for both the good and the hard and unpleasant things in life. The hard or unpleasant things in life are the things that grow us and teach us to see the good in the bad and to see God in all of it.
So even though a stinky bathroom is unpleasant and can’t be helped sometimes because of the sewage lines, it reminds me to be thankful that we even have bathrooms. There are SO many things to be thankful for, and the unpleasant things can always have a silver lining. So if you’re living in a foreign country and the sewage smell comes, I hope what I’ve said will remind you to be thankful for all God gives us, even if it’s a stinky bathroom. 😉
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