Just being thankful in the rain

I really, really dislike the rain.  Especially because my horse's stall floods if it rains a lot . . . and it's been raining a lot here (hey it's Ohio. what did you expect, sunshine?).

This evening when I went out to give Alax (my goat) his third bottle of the day I also went to go check on the chicks and on my horse.  I had no idea it was raining--because even though it was raining alot, it was really quiet.  So, I went outside and saw that the chicks were fine, and then I went to go see Macintosh (my mini horse).  Well, when I saw that the driveway was almost covered with water in some places I knew that the stall had to be flooded.

On Saturday I spent a long time raising the floor of the stall to prevent the flooding (and my dad's digging a drainage ditch sometime this week--yay!) but still it was started to get water in it.  So, I had to get several wheelbarrows full of stuff to raise the floor some more . . . in the pouring rain.  Keep in mind that this wheelbarrow only has one wheel, the wheel is completely flat, it's really muddy outside, and it's REALLY heavy . . . so yeah, not fun!  As much as I love my horse, I was really not happy about doing this (obviously).

I know it sounds like I'm complaining (ok, I'm definitely complaining), but here's the point.  I didn't need to complain.  In fact, I had absolutely no reason to complain.  There were so many things to be thankful for, but I was being stupid and chose to see only the negative things.  God blessed me in so many ways, but I ignored those blessings.  As much as I hated the rain, God really used that experience to remind me to be thankful about things and to not complain so much.

Instead of complaining that the wheelbarrow was ridiculously hard to push and kept getting stuck (darn flat tire) I was thankful that I had a wheelbarrow to use.  It would have been even harder without the wheelbarrow.  And, even though it was irritating to have a slight leak in my boot, I was so thankful that I had boots.  Thankfully it wasn't cold, because I was soaking wet by the end of the evening.  And, lastly, that's not how I would have liked to have spent my time, but I'm so, so, SOOOO thankful that I have a horse.  He can certainly be a stinker at times, but I wouldn't trade him for anything--even the chance to stay inside on nasty days like today.  Although I used to hate the rain (I'm still not a big fan of the rain) it will now remind me to be thankful for things instead of complain about them.

So now, I'm thankful for the rain.