Mama said there would be days like this, there'd be days like this my Mama Said

Today while stoving (is that a verb?) we came to the part where you had to smooth cement on the the bricks and smooth it out to look beautiful. I was an epic fail at this task. I was so terrible at it that my mason kindly asked me to sit out of the two hour process. I was so upset and embarrassed. I wanted to help so badly, but there was nothing I could do. During the lunch break my mood was terrible. I complained and whined about things I'm too embarrassed to admit to here. My attitude was so terrible that Kelly had to kindly ask me to shut my whiny mouth. I was so upset and embarrassed. I went back to the house completely deflated while in my head I sang the song quoted in the title. Then I remembered something else my mother said. "You can choose your mood. You can choose to be miserable, or you can choose to acknowledge your blessings." 

I was sitting in this beautiful family's home while something amazing was happening to them. I was surrounded by excitement and gratitude and love, and I had the audacity to complain. I gave myself a proverbial kick in the butt, and chose to be in a good mood. I realized that, yeah, no, I'm not going to be able to participate in every task ever handed to me, but the response to that shouldn't be sulking. Instead, I need to have the humility to ask for help or say I'm not doing this well, and when the task is taken over by more capable hands my response needs to be gratitude and an attitude of readiness for the next opportunity. 

I was able to help eventually. I won't bother trying to express the emotions when we finished that stove and the family saw it for the first time. I won't waste time explaining the humbling that was done to me when the family with dirt floors and only enough food to get by gave me gifts to say thank you and said, 'Tu eres amable". I won't try to explain the grief  I felt saying goodbye to this amazing family. 

Suffice it to say I am in awe of how gentle and generous my Teacher is with His prideful daughter.