Few things make me more crazy than missing out on my morning cup of tea. I don’t think I’m asking for much – just a warm cup of black tea with a splash of milk (essential!) and a bit of sugar to start my day off well. So when I noticed that we were down to the last bag of milk yesterday before I headed out the door for work, I made a mental note to pick up some more. Then of course I promptly forgot until I was heading home at 9:30 pm with my two girls.

Photo by KnitStorm on Flickr (I so have to make one of these cozies!) 

I found myself driving around, cursing the lack of drive-thru convenience stores and wondering what to do. It was freezing cold and I didn’t want to drag my girls out of the car and into a store when they were both already so tired and unhappy. Then, a brainstorm: Tim Hortons. I pulled up to the drive-thru and ordered two large milk cartons, which would be more than enough to last us through to the morning. Okay, I know buying a bag of milk would have been a better value, but I was happy to pay a little bit extra to keep my sanity in tact. Actually, I’m still pretty pleased with myself for even thinking of it.

Fast forward to this morning: I got up and headed to the kitchen to turn on the kettle. I saw the last bag of milk had been emptied over night, just as I predicted. I then found one of the two cartons had also been finished and was resting in the recycling bin. Well thank goodness I bought two. I know, I’m a smart cookie.

Then I saw the second container had been opened but not used and was just sitting on the counter. My heart sank as I grabbed it – room temperature. Crud.

Well, I guess the only logical explanation is that large animals broke into the house while we sleeping, drank most of our milk from the fridge and then left the rest of it out to spoil. What else could it be? I personally blame raccoons, mostly cause I just don’t like them. My husband came home late last night after I was in bed – I’ll have to ask him if he saw animal tracks or anything like that.

So, as I said, starting the day without tea makes me go a little batty, but I actually was pretty good. I just made myself a smoothie and started to get ready for church. However, the morning started to get worse. I soon realized that none of the shirts that are good for nursing were clean. Then I noticed how bad my hair looked. And then I couldn’t find any of the diaper covers that I like. I seriously started to question if God wanted us to go to church today. It’s not like He was helping me out.

Given our busy day of errands, I started to think about skipping the service altogether, but then it hit me: there are people in this world who regularly to to church hungry. There are people in this world who don’t have a closet full of shirts, let alone a full set with cleverly placed holes for discrete nursing. There are people in this world who have to sneak to church to avoid persecution. And, then of course, I felt like an idiot. I quickly got ready and headed off to church with my girls.

I’m glad I went – I love my church. Sunday mornings are one of the highlights of my week. Our pastor Bruxy spoke during his message about the origin of the word martyr. He mentioned Christians being fed to lions or hung on crosses. Missing a morning cup of tea never came up as an example of martyrdom. Just in case I wasn’t clear on that, I guess.

Sometimes I need to step back for a moment to realize just how blessed my life  is. It’s easy to get wrapped up in myself and my every day drama, but I have it really good. With that in mind, I’ve decided to turn my morning cup of tea into a mental hook, a way to remind myself daily to be grateful for everything I’ve been given, and to truly appreciate how I’ve been blessed. And I suppose if I can’t have a cup of tea, I’ll have to reflect on my blessings over a cup of coffee instead. Really, that wouldn’t be so bad.

How about you? How do you remind yourself to be grateful?