hard to keep me humble

After a particularly difficult day on the mission, my companion felt the need to remind me that Heavenly Father loves us, to which I replied, “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean that He doesn’t play some nasty tricks sometimes.” And that is an accusation against deity that I stand by. You don’t have to know my friends very well to know that teasing and pranks are a sign of love. (Don’t lie, Patrick, I know that with all your threats, what you are really trying to say is ‘I love you’.) Well, I think I must either be a favorite child of God, or else it is a full time job, even for Him, to keep me humble.

I think this is one of the reasons that I hate compliments so much. As soon as I believe a compliment that I am pretty, I am guaranteed to have one of the worst hair days in the history of hair, or worse—a breakout. As soon as I believe a compliment that I sing well, I run into someone like Shayla Sasser that puts me to shame. I swear, if I ever believe a compliment that I look like I’ve lost weight, I’ll gain 5 pounds overnight, so for heaven’s sake, don’t ever tell me that. I guess that I got too prideful about how well I’ve been handling life on 6 hours of sleep a night, because of late I’ve woken up after 5 hours of sleep and haven’t been able to go back to sleep. Yesterday, I accepted another compliment from my mother that got me into trouble. She said that, of all her children, I got sick the least, of all things. Well, foolish me, my pride in my infallible immune system spiked to such a degree as to merit being struck down by higher powers, and I woke up in the middle of the night, throat on fire and head throbbing. It seems God has a hobby of proving me wrong.

OK, OK! I admit it! I am mortal and have no magical defenses against viruses, no control over how tired I am, and apparently no control over how I look, in spite of my best efforts. I guess I’ll have to start believing what the apostle (Boyd K. Packer?) said, “You are nobody. And if you ever start to forget it, God will remind you, and it won’t be pleasant.” Or, as another wise sage once said (in the form of a comment on a YouTube video), “No matter how good you are at something, there will always be some Asian kid who is better than you.” I guess I’ll have to accept that there are some things that are not in my control and that I’ll never be good at…like winning the lottery…? Prove me wrong about that one, I dare you!