Life can be a brick!

I know so many people who are having a hard time this holiday season.  I don't seem able to do enough to help those who need it.  So, today I am going to share one of my favorite stories.  Variations of this story have been around a long time.  I even remember hearing it long before there were computers to keep track of my favorite stories!

The Brick - Anonymous

As a young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door. The angry driver slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. He jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?"

The young boy was apologetic. "Please, mister ... please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do. I threw the brick because no one else would stop..." With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. "It's my brother,' he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up."

Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay.

"Thank you and may God bless you," the grateful child told the stranger.

Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

The moral of this story is pretty simple.  

 Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention.

Think about that for a minute or two.  Are you like the man in the story?  Does someone have to throw a brick at you?  Sometimes, I know that I have had to have a few bricks thrown my way to make me take notice.  Especially when I am so involved in my own problems that I don't take the time to notice those around me.  My family, especially, can take a backseat to my unresolved issues.  Sometimes, I need a brick to remind me of what is most important of all.

Since we are close to Thanksgiving, I want you to take a deep breath, and think of three things right now that you are grateful for. Can you do it? Can you honestly think of just three things?  In all of your life, are there only three things that you have received that you can be grateful for?
Life can be so hard. It can bruise our hearts and our souls. It can bring about pain and grief. Yet, in the midst of all, our Heavenly Father still offers us peace. There is comfort, strength and hope if we only know where to find it.

When my heart is hurting, I have found comfort in remembering my blessings.  It seems as if, when I bother to acknowledge them, my life shifts ever so slightly and I start to realize how much I have been blessed.  When I am grateful for the gifts I have received, I find even more in my life to be grateful for.  I don't understand it, but it seems as if a little gratitude on my part, can quite simply, change my perception of life.  And that change, means that the bricks aren't quite so necessary.  When I am grateful for the things I have been given, I notice more around me.  I see more of what needs me.  I feel closer to those who love me.  And best of all, I become more of the person that I am really trying to be.  

"And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man; for unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion.

And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments" (D&C 59:20-21).

This is a wonderful time to be living here on earth. Our opportunities are limitless. While there are some things wrong in the world today, there are many things right, such as teachers who teach, ministers who minister, marriages that make it, parents who sacrifice, and friends who help. "We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues."
--Thomas S. Monson, "An Attitude of Gratitude," Ensign, Feb. 2000, 2

Our task is to become our best selves. One of God's greatest gifts to us is the joy of trying again, for no failure ever need be final."
--Thomas S. Monson, "The Will Within," Ensign, May 1987, 67