Life Is Hard?

Here is a quote I ran across today which made me do a bit of thinking...
"When I hear somebody say life is hard, I am always tempted to ask 'Compared to What'?
Sidney J. Harris

I pondered that statement for quite some time and remembered the most difficult times in my life. There have been some really difficult times in my life, and I am sure each and every one of you can identify some in yours.

Divorce, loss of a job, death of a child, bankruptcies, just plain tight times. So many people are talking about times being so terrible right now. Now don't get me wrong, I understand there are some really hard times for people in this country right now, but I can tell you there have already been worse times in this old USA.

My friend, Lucy, is almost 95 years old and remembers quite well the Great Depression here in the US. She says frequently that people nowadays just don't realize how tough things were back then. Most of those alive today are too young to understand that statement.

But it isn't just then. We have been such a blessed Country that we don't understand at all how difficult things are in many other places in the world. I remember my first trip to the Dominican Republic in the late seventies. I was crushed when I saw the poverty there, and things haven't changed much since then.
Look at Haiti and all the grief and despair in that country. It has been that way for so long, and things don't look too bright for the future.

Africa is another sad, sad story. So much famine and war. Can you even imagine how it would feel to hold your two year old child in your arms, a child who should weigh 30 pounds or more and it only weighs 12 pounds, is limp and sick and starving, and there is no one there to help? I can't even imagine that kind of hopelessness and despair.

I am saying all of this to remind you to be thankful every day for the many blessings you do have. If you can feed your children. If you and your children are healthy. If you have a job. If you are fortunate enough to have a roof over your head, even if it isn't your "dream home". We have become so spoiled we think we should all have two or three cars, a home with five plus bedrooms and five or more baths. We have closets FULL of clothes and shoes.

I myself can remember having one pair of school shoes...and we went barefoot in summer. If you were lucky you had a pair of school shoes and a pair of dress shoes. You had ONE Sunday outfit, and you had better not wear it to play in!

It is nice to have plenty, but we ALL need to remember those who have less and do less complaining about "hard times" and what we don't have or can't buy.

We ALL need to remember the rough spots in our lives and how we got through them. We will probably have more, life isn't easy at times. But then again, nothing worth having is.

God Bless!