Count Your Blessings

"While at Nauvoo, my father William Field and my tow sisters Eliza and Rachael died, leaving my mother with six children to provide for. We were very poor and had very little to eat...we were put on a ration of one pint of corn meal a day for the seven of us...the children cried for a piece of white bread and mother often times would cry with us, as she was unable to give us the bread of get enough food to satisfy the hungry cries of her children.  Mother worked to provide for us and tried to help us the best she could.  You must remember most of the saints were poor after being forced to leave their old homes and be driven from one state to another by the anti-Mormons. We did not complain. We were thankful to be at Nauvoo with the other saints of God and to be aquainted with our Prophet and leader, Joseph Smith and to listen to his teachings."(Barton, Annie Garner. The life of Mary Field Garner. New Canaan, CT: Readex, 199. Print.)

While reading Mary's story, this quote stuck out to me.  This was not the only struggle that they went through, the trials and sacrifices were unimaginable, but, she said, "we did not complain".  I think of that and it makes me re-evaluate my life and to realize the blessing I have and the opportunities that the Lord has given to me.  There is so much we can learn from the pioneers, and I think that one of them is to not look at what you don't have, but to look at what you do have.