Monday, August 8, 2011

Blessing Balloons

So often when my head hangs low feeling the weight of my sorrow stone filled bucket, I have to remind myself to lift my eyes up. For tied to my bucket (and very often tied to each individual stone) there are a mass of colorful blessings rising up like balloons in the sky, lifting a bit of their sorrowful anchor.

I am amazed at the sheer number of blessing balloons are tied to some of my weightier stones. For example, I lost one child, yet I have been blessed with 5 other healthy, living children. Because of the loss of that one child, I have gained thousands of new friends I have never met. I have gained a wealth of wisdom and a greater appreciation for my motherhood.

And these are only a few of the blessing balloons tied to that one most weighty sorrow stone in my bucket. And I know there are a multitude of blessing balloons tied to that stone which are not currently in my view but they are there, subtly lifting me up all the same.

These balloons cannot remove the stones from my bucket. The sorrows are still there. But when I remember to lift my eyes to the heavens, in a beautiful array they are a manifestation of the Lord's love for me. They let me know that not only will the Savior help carry my load, but that I am blessed in other ways as a sort of side compensation for my sacrifice. As Maria in the Sound of Music says, "when the Lord closes a door, somewhere he opens a window."

I have been looking up these last few days, and counting all those balloons in the sky. I feel I should be floating, seeing so many. Sometimes it really pays to just look UP.

8 comments:

Joyce Kay said...

Great post! We so often just look at all the bad things that have happened in our lives that we forget to look at all the blessings that we have been given.

chercard said...

beautiful! I just read this quote yesterday and it spoke to me:
"We have no right to ask when sorrow comes, "Why did this happen to me?" unless we ask the same question for every moment of happiness that comes our way."

Susan Anderson said...

Looking up is definitely the key.

=)

Judy said...

Thank you so much ~ what a great post and I definitely needed to read it today! It is often to easy to sit back and dwell on the hardships and not count our many blessings! Love the quote that Cheryl just left ~ We just need to remember that through all the hardships our Heavenly Father is preparing us for some amazing blessing to follow if we will live worthy to receive them!

jimnalli said...

I just love this

Emily in Wonderland said...

This was such a beautiful, well written post. I want to save it.

But I do have to say something funny. In one of my favorite movies, "Saved" the mom says to the daughter, "You have to remember, when Jesus closes a door, he opens a window."
The daughter takes a bite of a cookie, stares at her and says, "Yeah, so you have something you can JUMP out of."

lol

I relate to that statement too.

Alesha said...

I have been reading your blog for a long time now, but have never left a comment. I recently lost my infant son, and wanted you to know how much strength I get from reading you posts! Thank you! -Alesha

Nicole said...

What a beautiful metaphor. I love your blog and am hopefully becoming a better mother because of it. Thank you.