One of the most important lessons I learned on my mission was this:

In the midst of a cloudy day, the Lord will always send a ray of sunshine.

Of course, I'm speaking figuratively here. Some days just suck. Nothing goes right. The kids are cranky. I am cranky. It's 6:30 a.m., and I am already counting the hours until bedtime.

Not too long ago, I had a week straight of days like this. Just when I was on the brink of insanity, the Lord sent me a ray of sunshine in the form of a Costco receipt.

Thomas had been in rare form that week - pushing all my buttons, picking on Abby, and protesting every tiny request from Kenta and me. I had to make a Costco run and on the way out the door, as he always does, Thomas asked the person checking our cart and receipt to draw him a smiley face. The kind man drew two - "One for you, and one for your sister", he said. Thomas refused to give me the receipt, so I wisely chose not to fight that battle until we got to the car. After I put the groceries away, I asked Thomas for the receipt. He handed it back, but I noticed it was torn into pieces. Kenta's really a stickler about keeping track of our expenses, so I knew a shredded Costco receipt was not going to be received very well - especially if part of it was missing. Kind of annoyed with having to track the missing pieces down, I asked Thomas (a bit exasperatedly) "What happened to the rest of the receipt??". He looked at me and smiled, then pointed at Abby. My hard heart turned to a mushy puddle when I saw what she was holding.

Of course he would have given her smiley face to her. Of course. That's what big brothers do. They look out for their little sisters.

This was my "ray of sunshine" for the day. Seriously. This ripped up little Costco receipt was the highlight of a difficult week and carried me through the next couple of rough days.

A good reminder to look for the rays of sunshine. They are out there. Sometimes they are easy to miss if you are too focused on the rain.