This week our hot water tank went out. I came home from picking up my preschooler
and I saw a lot of water on the garage floor and I could see water flowing from
the hot water tank, this was no little leak.
I called my husband at work to find out what I should do. I did not even know where to shut off the
water to our house. Which I encourage
you to find out ahead of time if you don’t know in case of emergencies like
this. Thankfully my father-in-law rushed
over to help me turn off the water and he knew exactly what to do. He hooked up a hose to empty our hot water
tank and turned off the gas to our tank, which gave me great peace of mind to
have the help of someone who knew what they were doing.
Of course this happened in the middle of the afternoon so I
knew it was very likely that it would not be repaired that day and I could
bring myself to be okay with that. I
figured we could go without hot water for one day. I love my showers but I could go one day
without a shower, I thought. We found a
contractor who would come out on Tuesday, well, that fell through and he ended
up not showing up. I knew Wednesday I
needed to take a shower and have my three little boys shower. You know how smelly boys can be. It was easy enough to heat up water on the
stove to give the baby a bath in his little baby tub, but I was not up to
heating up enough water to bathe my three older boys.
Thankfully we have a lot of family nearby so
I called my sister-in-law and went and showered at her house and then later in
the evening my husband took the boys to shower at grandma’s house which the
boys absolutely loved and thought was quite fun.
While over at my sister-law’s house I was saying how things
like this cause you to remember to be grateful for the little things like hot
water. My sister-in-law who grew up in
Guam was telling me she grew up with no hot water, they would have to heat
their water if they wanted hot water. And
in speaking with my dad, he was telling me for a number of years he and his
family growing up lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere and there was no hot
water and they had an outhouse for a bathroom.
This situation stirred up gratitude in my heart. I found myself thanking God for all the
little conveniences we have. I was
grateful for hot water and my dishwasher that washed dishes. During these days I was heating up water to
wash the dishes by hand and towel dry them.
I haven’t done a lot of dishes by hand in a very long time. I wash a pot and pan but all the dishes after
dinner silverware and all, haven’t had to do that in a while.
I found myself grateful for technology, internet and cell
phones. I was reminded that my mom
delivered my baby brother without my father present because it was before cell
phones and he worked out in the construction field and by the time they had the
message delivered to him, he arrived to the hospital too late. I was thinking about how far technology has
come just in the last eight years. The baby
monitor I had with my first baby who is now eight had static, would pick up
radio stations at random times and sometimes even the neighbor’s baby
monitor. The one I have today is crystal
clear, super quiet and does not pick up any interference. Think about speakers, we used to have big
bulky speakers now we have these portable, hand held, wireless speakers that
sound amazing. Think about all the CD's or cassette tapes we would have that now with Pandora and ITunes are pretty
much extinct. I was thinking back to last week when I was
annoyed because my internet wasn’t working fast enough and had me re-evaluate
my attitude of gratitude.
Once our hot water tank was repaired it felt so good to take
a nice hot shower in my own home. I am
grateful to have family nearby, borrowing an egg from my neighbor is one thing
but parading my four children over to borrow their shower would have me in a
tizzy. I know they would let me and
friends also but loading up four kids, pajamas, towels and all would have me a
little on edge.
It is great to be thankful for the big things like family
and our health, but it’s also important to be grateful for all the little
things in our lives that make life much easier for us. I encourage you to stop and look around you
and be thankful for all the little things in your life.
It was great to have the conversations I had with my
sister-in-law and my dad about how they grew up, it was a good reminder to
encourage my children to be grateful for all they have.
Don’t take for granted all the conveniences we have and I
know it can be annoying at times when technology does not work the best every
time, or when it doesn’t seem fast enough for us, but when you start to have
one of those aggravating moments with your computer, or cell phone, stop and
think back to just ten years ago what life was like. Realize that although things break down and
don’t always function at peak performance we still have a lot to be grateful
for.
When you give your kids a nice warm bath tonight know that
there are still places around the world that don’t have hot water, or even
clean drinking water. Take a moment as a
family and discuss all you have to be grateful for.
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