The Life Of A Single Mommy

“Be thankful for the problems you have today because tomorrow’s problems may be even worse”

Today I worry about how to make my paycheck stretch enough to pay my bills. Tomorrow I could not have a job to earn money to pay my bills with. I always tend to worry about things that I can’t change. Sometimes we have to let our worries go. Why do we hold on to them? All I can do is pray and put my problems in God’s hands. He has always been there to take me through rough times, emotionally, physically, and financially. I don’t know how many times I found money in a jacket pocket that I didn’t realize was there when there was a bill due. Where did it come from? Was it there all along? Only God knows.

“Never depend on someone else to make you happy, rather learn to make your own happiness”

I have everything I need to make me happy. I have my life, my children, my family, and my friends. I have food in my stomach, water to drink, and a roof over my head. Yes, maybe I don’t always have the food that I really want to eat or I would rather have a nice cold can of Pepsi instead of water, but I’m thankful for what I do have.

Sometimes not having a lot of material things helps you appreciate the things that really matter. Do you know how many times I’ve needed things for myself and I put those things aside for the things my children needed or wanted. I’ve worn jeans with holes in them in the dead of Winter, not because I was trying to be stylish, but because it was more important to buy diapers for the baby or pay for my daughter’s lunches at school than it was for me to have nice clothes.

My parents have helped me so much. I wouldn’t have anything that I have if it wasn’t for them. Sometimes I feel like I’ve taken too much from them. They are always willing to give more. I don’t know how many times they have asked if I had enough money for this or for that. Even though most of the times when they asked I told them that I had enough when I didn’t because I never wanted them to know how things really were. Eating Ramen Noodles every day because they were the only thing I could afford and honestly I couldn’t really afford them.

A couple weeks before Halloween in 2008 my parents were visiting. My father had given me money to take the children to get pumpkins. My daughter mentioned that she wanted to go out to eat at McDonald’s why we were out. I asked her if she had the money to pay for McDonald’s. Of coarse she said no. I told her I didn’t have enough money to take her out to eat either. She said, “Well, Grandpa can give us the money”. I said, “You should be thankful for the pumpkins you are getting. Just because Grandpa gives you money for one thing, doesn’t mean that you should ask for more. Be thankful for what you are getting.” I want her to grow up being thankful for what she has and not expect someone else to hand her everything in life, but rather, she needs to work for the things she wants in life. Maybe it is just McDonald’s today, but if it starts at McDonald’s then it moves up to bigger things.

© 2008 LaDawn Cossey