(Older post from my other website Joy-Cafe.com archives; I’m working on #1 goal to get totally unpacked by the end of January. I’ll be back with live content when I have time!)

There are so many things we take for granted.  The sad truth is that with most of them, we don’t even know we are taking them for granted.

Take the internet.  Sure, some of us will admit we are slightly addicted.  We just don’t know how bad it is until we can’t get onto the internet exactly when we want to.

The other day we had thunderstorms all day long.  My connection to the internet was intermittent.  I spent some time working on an email note and when it was time to send it, there was no connection.  My USB light was blinking which means death to the nice long note – because I hadn’t saved it or sent it to draft.  I know lost it because I saw that dreaded “page not found.” UGH.

This morning Alpha Hubby woke me up before he left for work to tell me there was NO water.  This means that somewhere along the water line, there was a leak.  No water!  I needed to wash my hair.  I needed to make coffee.  I needed… oh so many things.  It is so amazing what you realize you do with water when you don’t have any.  Laundry, coffee, dishes, flushing, drinking, and most important of all, brushing teeth!

And as much as Alpha Hubby mocks me for this, I did have water.  I always keep 3-4 gallons (in bottles) on hand for moments just like this one.  He pokes at me because he wants to make sure I don’t go back to being a packrat – that person who has cases of toilet paper and paper towels, and huge stashes of emergency supplies “just in case we need them.”

I’m not that bad anymore but I NEVER take toilet paper for granted.  Trust me.  There were times in the past when napkins and tissue were put in use and I always swore, shaking my fist at the toilet… um, in the air…  “As God is my witness, as God is my witness… I’ll never be without real toilet paper again!  No, nor any of my folk.  If I have to lie, steal, cheat, or kill.  As God is my witness, I’ll never be without toilet paper again!”** 

*Ahem*  Shades of Scarlet O’Hara!  No, I don’t keep cases on hand (but mom did and she didn’t live far from me!), but I always have a pack or two so that I am never without again.  Ever.

So anyway, taking things for granted – the worst thing we take for granted is our loved ones.  We often treat others better than we do our own family members.  It’s like, because we are in the same family, they should put up with our rudeness while we are unfailingly polite to total strangers.

Our loved ones are to be more valuable and precious to us than anyone else on the face of this earth.  We should look at them and always remember what it is we love about them – AND like.

We should protect them by never talking badly about them.  We should praise them both in public and to their faces.  We should value them as something worth taking care of – far more than we do our houses or cars!

We do live in a wonderful world.  There is so much around us that we should value and appreciate.  There are things you’d really miss if they were gone.  Don’t take them for granted!

Try to think of five things today that you take for granted – then remind yourself why you are grateful about it.  Or how about electricity?  Imagine having to use kerosene lamps again.  Toothpaste or deodorant?  Think how awful it would be in this world without them!  Your dog?  Your car?  Refrigerator?  Running water?  A person?  Then tell them how much you appreciate them. 

Baby?  THANK YOU for loving me!

**Quote from Gone With the Wind, paraphrased

Song: Smokey Robinson “I Love Your Face“