Saying Thank You

I work at a university counseling center. I spend my days talking to amazing college students. Many of them are in pain, not physical pain, but the kind of pain that does not show up with a blood test: psychological pain. But what’s really remarkable is that for a vast majority of the students that I work with, their pain doesn’t define them. Despite their circumstances, the students that I work with have made it to college and are surviving, if not thriving. That’s incredibly admirable and I am honored to work with such dedicated, resilient human beings. That’s why I don’t mind being so busy at work. There’s rarely a day when one of my appointment slots isn’t filled.

Except yesterday.

I looked at my calendar in disbelief. I had an entire day that, due to a school break, was completely open and appointment less.

So I asked for the day off and immediately set off planning my day: errands in the morning, then a day of vegging out and playing with my pup, Sparta.

Well, yesterday didn’t go anything like I had planned.

One of the errands I wanted to run was to renew my driver’s license, a task for which I needed certain documents: my birth certificate, my passport, and my social security card. Well, as I was preparing to leave the house and go to the DMV, I realized that those three very important documents were nowhere to be found. I always keep them in a specific place in the house and they just weren’t there. So the day that was supposed to be spent getting things done and rewarding myself was spent tearing my house apart and putting everything back in a neat organized fashion.

Complain Less, Thank More

And then it happened. I caught myself praying, “Thank you, God, for this opportunity to finally organize my things.”

Now that may not seem remarkable for some people, but for someone like me who finds any reason to complain, this is a miracle.

You see, at the beginning of the year I had resolved to complain less and saying thank you more. This is a very difficult task for me. But yesterday, I finally realized that what I was struggling with (saying “thank you”) finally became second nature!

So maybe change is possible. Even for someone like me.

“For if a man belongs to Christ, he is a new person. The old life is gone. New life has begun” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NLV).

Jael Amador writes from New York, New York.

If you liked this, you may also like A Thanksgiving to Remember 

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