perspective

I love working at the Sudanese Center because it always provides a much-needed dose of perspective. I go in worried about some little problem at work, or why I don't have a date (again) this Friday night, or even upset over an illness in the family. Then I spend two hours with people who don't have jobs because they can't speak or read English well enough to fill out an application, who have left their families in Africa and will likely never see them again, let alone talk to them on a regular basis or nurse them through illnesses. One man I was tutoring last night arrived here as a refugee two months ago and cannot speak hardly any English, and he was having a hard time concentrating because he was "sick with worry" over his wife and child who were still back in Eritrea. He had no way to contact them and was trying to find World Vision so he could try anything to arrange for them to come to the US.

I need to be counting my many blessings instead of focusing on what I don't have...because I have so much and so little has been asked of me compared to these people.