Humility; or, What the Grump Saw

I wondered if you would like to hear a story I had in my head this morning? It almost sounded like a sermon as I was telling it to the girls at work so when I finished my story I threw my hands up and said, now let's have a song! They all laughed but they liked the story. Here goes.

This morning the first thing I thought when I woke up was, My throat hurts. I got mad at my brother-in-law, who caused it. Not directly, but the only sick person I've been around was my mother-in-law and her cold. And the reason we went to see her this week was because we were supposed to help my brother-in-law move, and he changed his mind but didn't tell us in time so we made unneeded trips across town and I caught her germs.
Then I got up and fixed breakfast. I microwaved a sausage biscuit from the freezer but it came out as hard as a rock. I got mad when I burned my tongue trying to bite into it, so I threw it in the trash and made a bowl of oatmeal.
I realized our thermal underwear was still in the washing machine and it was 22 degrees outside, so I hurried to sort the essentials and threw them into the dryer. When I brought the dried thermals into the bedroom my husband got up and put on a pair, only to wrinkle up his nose and say, these cuffs are still damp.
There was frost on my car so I went out in the cold and started it to warm. I came back in to get the key for my husband's truck (which is new and I have never driven) and went out to the driveway. I tried to fit the key in the lock about a dozen times, getting madder by the minute when my husband banged on the window and waved me back inside. "I didn't know it was locked," he said. "You have the wrong key."

By this point I was a bit ruffled. I got my last kiss from my husband who grumbled, You're in a bad mood today!" I sassed back, "On that note, have a good day!" and I went out the door without much else.
There were several accidents and slow downs on the interstate and I seemed to be going backward a few times. I was so hostile by the time I got to my exit that I didn't care much about how the day went after that. I sat in the stopped traffic, waiting to get down the exit ramp, and I had a moment to look around. What I saw was actually pretty interesting.

There were interstates and lanes of city traffic all rolling into downtown from north, south, east, and west. I thought, look at all these people heading to their jobs. That's a lot of people with a chance to earn some money.
There was a construction worker headed to his jobsite, walking along a sidewalk and carrying his insulated lunch box and his silver thermos. He was already wearing his hard hat and Carhartt jacket. I thought, he's going to be out in the cold today and I am going to my warm desk.
Then I started thinking back over the morning.
I woke up in a warm bed next to my wonderful husband.
I had the chance to eat breakfast--two breakfasts when the first didn't please me.
I had warm, clean clothes to wear.
I had a car that got me to work on time.
I had a job to go to, in a warm safe office with friends to chat with during the day.
And my throat wasn't even sore anymore--so I couldn't blame it on the mother-in-law who had welcomed me to the family with a smile, or the brother-in-law who always offers to help whenever we need a hand with projects around our house.

As the light changed and traffic started rolling again, I felt very humbled and proud to live in a country where the biggest problems of my day are opportunities beyond imagining for much of the world. I may not have a huge paycheck or a big house or even a fancy car, but I am rich in more ways than even I can know.