When we got married we slept in a double bed. As the years and our weight progressed, that bed got smaller and smaller. What made it worse was that it also had a foot board that stuck up higher than the mattress. I am a tummy sleeper so I would wake up many a morning with my feet on top of the foot board hanging out the end of the bed and cold as ice! Then when the kids came along, they would all want to pack into our bed and frankly, there just wasn't room for us. I would often slip (or fall) out of bed and get in one of their beds to sleep. One day, one of them spoke some real wisdom. As we lay in bed with 3 toddlers one of them said "You need to get a bigger bed. This one isn't big enough for all of us!" It was then that dreams of a king sized bed were birthed in my mind's eye.
It took me a while to convince my husband. We tentatively made plans to use our tax return money to buy one. Then a missions opportunity came up and my king sized bed transported my husband and daughter to the Philippines. I laughed about it especially with the missionaries that they went to help. A couple of months after they returned from their trip, we got a check in the mail for $1000.00 from a couple who had been part of our campus ministry. The memo simply said "King sized bed". My husband still wasn't totally sold on the idea of such a huge bed, but because I had suffered almost a year longer than we thought I would have to, he relented and we bought one. It would fit all four kids, paper, felt markers and a doodling book on a lazy Saturday morning. It accommodated my oldest daughter and several of her teenage friends who would just come into our room, flop down on the bed and chat with me. It has enough room that hubby, I and a big hairy golden retriever can sleep comfortably without the dog laying on my head and without having her tail in my mouth all night long. It can handle multiple loads of folder clothing. It makes a great wrestling mat for 4 kids and a Dad who often says now that it was one of the best purchases we ever made. Secretly I think that the reason I like it so much is that it's one of the only things my husband will admit he was wrong about. LOL
This morning when I awoke and felt the mattress firmly under my toasty warm feet, I just said a prayer for that couple who gave us our first king mattress. Then I stretched my foot out to see how much extra room there was at the end of the bed and I was thankful, so thankful for king sized beds.
You may think this silly and not so spiritual, but if you take all the "little" blessings in life and lump them all together, that equates to one big ball of thankfulness and a merry heart.