Happy Birthday, Ann!

My father always said this most irritating phrase to me as a child: 

Be Thankful For Your Troubles.

Why, I thought, would you ever, ever, be thankful for hard things in your life?  I realize now that no one escapes troubles, I don't care who you are.  Troubles care not if we are rich, poor, healthy and strong, weak, mean or nice.  And we might not even recognize them as troubles at the time or they might be very blatant (I like one of the dictionaries definition of blatant:  unpleasantly loud and noisy) troubles that everyone sees.  But what my father was trying to patiently teach me was that it isn't the troubles that are the worry but how you react, how you care to see your way through, how you conduct yourself,  how you turn to God.  Well, with all that said, this is my tribute to Ann today:  She uses God's lenses to see through her troubles so they no longer can be defined as troubles but as intruments in becoming more like Him.   Two cute babes in her care:  one very sick and one very healthy, but neither one any trouble.   Thank you Ann for continuing to teach me what my father was trying to get me to understand all along! 
I love you. 

Happy Day to you!