The Garbage Truck that got Away
By Abby Pehrson
Today my toddler was complaining about putting on his pants when a garbage truck roared by our house. These moments are spectacular in his little life, consequently he loudly expressed his disappointment in missing it.
Afterwards I told him, “that’s what happens when you’re busy complaining. You miss out on the cool things in life.”
And then I froze. Because my admonition did a boomerang rebound and smacked me on the backside of the head. I realized that I myself had just been complaining to my husband the night before; lying in bed lamenting about how tired I was, how long and difficult the day had been, how it was going to be a long week. As I thought about the last night, I instantly was convicted, and then wondered: What had I missed in my complaining?
As the day went on, the answer to that question revealed itself. It was a peaceful day of playing with the kids on the playground, baking cookies, building pillow forts & jumping in said pillows. My complaining had blinded me from being able to recognize the blessings God has given me and the beautiful small moments of daily life with my children. By focusing on the hard things I had lost sight of the greater, sweet, picture.
I recently attended the 2025 Ancient Faith Women’s Retreat. One of the speakers, Fr. Raphael Barberg, spoke about how when trouble besets us we should respond not by saying,
“Why me?”
but instead:
“As God wills.”
Fr. Barberg shared with us the story of Archimandrite Roman Braga’s life, a Romanian Orthodox priest who reposed in 2015 after serving in various locations in the US. Fr. Braga was born in Romania and endured many years of imprisonment and torture in Romania by the Communist government. Yet despite his trials and scars, he is quoted saying:
My dear friends, I think the mystery of my life is joy. And I never tire of telling everyone to be joyful. Why should we be sad when we belong to the Lord and He loves us so much that He cannot take His eyes off of us, as a mother cannot take her eyes off of her baby?
We may never experience hardships like Fr. Braga did. But we will all struggle. For many of us, most often this takes on the form of problems we may consider trivial: erratic drivers on the road, crying babies at 3am, difficult family members, toddlers who won’t put their pants on. But we should treat these with the same seriousness as large trials. Moments of struggle take different forms for different people and in different phases of life. But how we respond to them makes all the difference.
For this half-holy lady, I most certainly struggle in responding with joy and thankfulness. This I will strive towards, but in the meantime I can work on at least accepting my circumstances and letting God teach me through them instead of complaining.
As Fr. Barberg urged us:
Where would you rather be than right here, right now?
Let us be content with what the Lord gives us.
Lord save me and have mercy upon me! Glory be to God for all things.