Being a stay home mom is the BEST job in the world for me, it is my calling, but that doesn't mean it is always easy, stress free days, filled with eating bon bons. These hard days usually coincide with my husband's travel schedule, the more days he is gone things seem to build up, adding up to a hard days work. Last week I was having one of these days. It didn't help that the weather had been rotten and we hadn't gotten out of the house in a few days, whatever the reason I was on edge, the kids were testing me, and my husband couldn't get home from his 8 day trip soon enough.
As I was cooking dinner that evening my not so good day turned into something of a pity party, wishing my husband was home to help, wishing I could have but a moment of peace. As soon as I am having these moments more often than not the man upstairs will find a way of putting things into perspective for me. My reality check was the thud I heard coming from the great room and the wail of my daughter. My one year-old had climbed up onto the loveseat and had slipped of, thankfully only having a small bruise on her cheek to show for it. Oh it could have been so much worse, giving me something truly worthwhile to worry about. With that the pity party ended and the thankful prayers began, the first one being a prayer of thanks of the ways He has of keeping me in check and aware of just how blessed and protected I am.
We do reward our children for jobs well done, and, on occasion we bribe them. As M's preschool Christmas program loomed before us,
I began having visions of last minute breakdowns, shyness kicking in full gear, and other not so pleasant thoughts. M is now five years old and honestly has blossomed into a direction following, kind to new people (and new situations) kind of girl. Unfortunately, this hasn't always been the case. We had our fair share of meltdowns and stubbornness in her toddler years that still haunt me as planned events such as a preschool programs come up. So, I do the only thing I know and talk her up, over prepare her, and let her know a treat awaits her if she does the best she can.
The program went off without a hitch with M remembering every word to every Christmas carol and twirling at the exact time all of the other sugar plum fairies were. And so on the way home M knew that she had earned a beloved "treat." Wouldn't it be nice if children wanted 20 minutes of quiet time for their treat, or maybe a scone from a coffee shop? This is not the case with either of my children, so at precisely 11:50 am, off we went to the golden arches for a reward lunch. I prepared myself for semi-warm fries, cleaning off crumbs from a table before we sat down, and a balancing act to get the tray of food to the nearest booth. Nothing could have been further from the truth for our experience there that day.
Critics will say someone was being overly friendly, but I know differently. The manager of the restaurant made us feel as though we were having a four star dining experience. He personally took our order, told us to go sit down that he understood a young mother trying to handle two children with carrying food was no easy task, brought extra napkins, brought extra toys, and the list went on. This manager wished everyone who left the restaurant a Merry Christmas and really tried to be helpful to others, but in so many of the cases people were too busy to notice.
Blessings are mentioned countless times in the bible. God wants us to be blessed, sending down blessings and grace like rain ( to quote one of my favorite Christian songs). Since starting this blog on everyday miracles my eyes have really been opened as to what He is doing for Us, everyday, are yours?
I am a woman of little patience. My husband knows this well, my children know this well. I crave to have things done on time, in order, and the moment I say so. Although my husband may disagree, I AM working on it! I work on it when I am in a slow moving line at the grocery store, when we have slow service out at a restaurant, but mostly what puts my bum in gear on working on it is when I see the same trait appearing in my children, not a good feeling to know you are responsible for that. How do I work on patience? Honestly, it has worked more on me. After I read that God's timing is always perfect and really thought about it, it stuck with me. When a babysitter wasn't right on time, that scripture came to mind and instantly soothed me. Who am I to argue with Him about timing of things? When my husband isn't home right on time, obviously the Man Upstairs had bigger plans for him at the moment than helping to cut chicken into bite size pieces for a one year-old. I have tried to instill this scripture into my children, reminding them that when things don't happen on their time it is ok.
Amazingly enough, as I have repeated this mantra in my head, something crazy has happened. More and more moments of Thank-you God for amazing timing have happened, and less of "why is this not happening my way?" moments have come to pass, small miracles.
One of these miracles came as an early Christmas miracle. It had been raining for the past week (who am I kidding? probably the past 13 days) in our state and finally this day the sun was shining!! The girls and I broke free of the house to soak in some much needed vitamin D. On my mind were thoughts of some of Santa's presents that were to be delivered early from the workshop and how I was going to get everything done as December 25th quickly approached. As the UPS man came to a halt at our driveway I wasn't too anxious knowing my oldest isn't a fluid reader yet, so any package from Santa I could play off as something for Daddy's work. The UPS man came down off of the truck and informed me that for some reason Santa had put a picture of the play kitchen on one side of the box it had come in and as he said this, glanced to my two girls playing in the front yard. He then when onto to say that he could put the large box (one that I couldn't slide, let alone carry) picture side down in the corner of our garage.
As he excited the garage I literally gave him a high five (the high five is still cool on most given days) and said God bless, and meant every word of it, God's amazing timing just filled up our yard. Think about it. If it had been raining, no way would I have let any man into our home to hide a box without my husband home, and the other consequence would have been some magic being stolen and Santa and I having to cover our tracks rather quickly as to why two little girl's play kitchen hadn't come on Santa's sleigh. No doubt about it, an everyday miracle. THANK-YOU, GOD, FOR YOUR PERFECT TIMING.
