What I Think When I Wash Dishes

I keep thinking about the Old Testament "promised land" that the children of Israel waited generations to occupy; and how in the Book of Mormon Lehi & his family left Jerusalem some time later to travel to the "land of promise."

Jason and I feel that England is where we are supposed to be. That this is where the Lord wants us to be. But that doesn't mean it is always easy. There are days when I think, "Why are we here?" Those are usually days when I'm missing my king-sized bed. Or my enormous clothes dryer. (Really, those are the only two things I really miss.)

We gave those things away. In early December I was really feeling angry about the dryer. It was only 18 months old and was the largest dryer one could buy for use in the home. It had a few bells and whistles that I used & a bunch more that I didn't. So one day when I felt like I was drowning under laundry, I kept questioning "Where's the blessings? I gave this great dryer to a family who by all appearances were in a lot better financial shape than us. And now I live in a house that doesn't even have a dryer. . .and it rains 50% of the time." It seemed incredibly unfair.

A few days later, a friend emailed and said that the family we'd given the dryer was losing their house and had to move two weeks before Christmas. Definitely one of those, "I'm a jerk. Thanks for humbling me" prayer moments.

After years of student life, followed by student-with-kids life, Jason has a solid job with built-in tenure. The only way he'll lose his job is if the British Educational System collapses and that's highly unlikely. We are being spared a lot of the anxiety and anguish that plague many people we know and millions that we don't.

We still can't live extravagantly. It's our promised land, not our paradise. There's a lot of work that goes into realizing the potential that a promised land contains.

So, back to the laundry & dishes.