I Have A Secret

I'm a grumpy person. Not all the time, not even most of it, but more often than I should be. I was thinking about this during the Relief Society lesson today. Our topic was this wonderful talk by Elder Wirthlin, "Come What May and Love It." I have read it several times now and already had a lesson on it in my old ward's Relief Society (which was fabulous by the way, both the lesson and the Relief Society), but apparently I still have much to learn about this topic.

Friday morning Mike calls unexpectedly and tells me he can leave work for a little while to go get our licenses together. Three minutes later he is home and strapping Maggie in her seat and I am grabbing our IDs.

"What do we need again?" I ask Mike.

"Just birth certificates or passports and our old licenses. Oh and proof of residency."

"Is that all?"

"Definitely."

Okay, so I can't remember exactly how the conversation went, but it was something along those lines.

An hour later, after practicing driver's license smiles the whole drive, we are in Ottawa at the driver's license bureau waiting for our number to be called. We get up to the counter.

"Shoot." I say.

"What's the matter?" Mike asks.

"I forgot our marriage license and I think I need it."

"Oh, they'll just use your social security card and old license as proof of your married name."

"I don't think so..."

Minutes later, Mike and I walk out of the office: Mike with new license in hand, me with a tight-lipped expression.

"Are you mad at me?"

"A little," I reply shortly.

It wasn't really Mike's fault, it wasn't really anyone's fault (except mine for not checking on what I needed myself). The truth was I was mad at the situation. I felt frustrated knowing I would have to spend another hour and a half in the car and wait in line again with a potentially fussy and tired baby, this time by myself, on an errand that should already be done.

It's funny how the little things are often the things that I let get to me the most. I knew it was no big deal in my mind. I didn't have any other plans for the day that couldn't wait. But I just couldn't seem to help the frustration that was burbling inside of me.

In the end I decided to go right back so that I wouldn't feel angry anymore. As I took action toward the solution I began to feel a little better. Maggie was a perfect angel and when I got back to the driver's license bureau, there was no line and it all went very smoothly. I felt more and more silly for being so annoyed and inwardly chided myself for getting all worked up about something that I should have just laughed at, especially since I am tremendously blessed and have so many things to be thankful for at this time in my life. Maggie was privileged to hear my rendition of "Count Your Many Blessings" on the way home with verses about all the things I have to be thankful (if you don't know this fabulous hymn, click the link). In my version, the last line of each verse before the chorus was "So I should be thankful instead of angry..." It was a long song (I have a lot to be thankful for). If Maggie could talk, she probably would have told me to stop. Since she can't, she fell asleep.

As we had our Relief Society lesson I just had to laugh, thinking about how ridiculous I was on Friday and some of the funny interchanges Mike and I had as he was trying to make me feel better. For instance:

Mike: "I'm really sorry. What would make you feel better? Do you want to go out to eat or do you want to go shopping...?"
Me: "Nothing will make me feel better until I can get my license exchanged."

I know. I can be dramatic.

Anyway, the reason I'm sharing this ridiculous and rather embarrasing story is because this blog is doubling as a journal and I thought some of you might need a laugh. And if any of you are tempted, as I often am, to let the little things get you down, I hope thinking of how silly I was will help you follow Elder Wirthlin's advice and laugh (more quickly than I was able to) when the small (and large) trials come.

I know that this is not going to be the largest frustration I face. The fact that it even made me so annoyed is proof of how blessed I am right now. If I have any hope of being able to face the big challenges life throws at me, I need to remember to laugh at the frustrations, act to solve them, count my blessings, and focus on the most important things.