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A Toilet Plunger Kind of Day

Today’s been the kind of day where I had to plunge the toilet in order to spray down a dirty (cloth) diaper.

Just let that sink in for a moment.

Someone also woke up with wet sheets (not me) and then spilled the special cup of tummy tea I’d prepared for them all over the dining room rug.

Y’all are probably smart enough to figure this out on your own, but I do not recommend using a rug from Restoration Hardware in the dining room.  Like under the dining table where small children eat multiple meals each day, and sometimes often spill messy food.  Duh.

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Somebody else didn’t want to take their morning nap, which led to intense stairway calisthenics (mine) between short bursts of morning homeschool lessons.

Today I’ve encountered just about every kind of bodily fluid on top of myriad interruptions on top of very little sleep for the last few nights months.  And it’s not even two o’clock yet!

Today I Am Thankful

Here’s the deal: I’m choosing thankfulness (for once), in spite of my toilet plunger kind of day.

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I’m thankful for three healthy children, especially in light of four tiny ones that never reached life outside my womb.  Children are a blessing from the Lord.

I’m thankful for the privilege of spending the entire day with those children and learning along side them from amazing literature and God’s creation.  I’m thankful they have time and space to run and play and exercise creativity, to know and to love each other and to learn to serve and work diligently.

Training and teaching them every hour of every day is hard, but it’s rewarding.  I’m thankful for the fruit it produces in their lives, in my life.

I’m thankful for the cleaning ladies (I know, I know–the mere fact that I have cleaning help should eliminate my right to complain), whose activity today added to my frazzled state but whose efforts left the house spic and span, and whose smiles brightened my day, and whose conversation forces me to practice my Spanish.

I’m thankful for a husband who loves me like Christ loves the church, who regularly sacrifices his sleep on my behalf and who invests in our children on a daily basis.  He also does the dishes every day.  Sorry, ladies, he’s already taken.

Offering My Body as a Living Sacrifice

I’m also thankful for a wise mentor and dear friend who urged me long ago to view my physical acts of service to my family as spiritual acts of worship to my God.

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• I can choose to mirror the gloominess of today’s gray skies by trudging around the house complaining about pee, poop and spilled tummy tea.  (Who, me?)
• I can view the countless interruptions as a morning derailed.
• I can demonstrate anger and impatience in the face of simple childish mishaps.
• I can invite those gloomy, stormy clouds into my home, my heat and the hearts of my children.

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• I can choose to offer my body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to Him, allowing Him to transform me by the renewing of my mind.
• I can allow my anxious thoughts to trigger prayers and thanksgiving to Him, choosing to dwell on truth (His grace is sufficient) instead of lies (I can’t do this, I never have any time to myself, This day My life is horrible, miserable, no good, very bad).
• I can focus on that which is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable and excellent, rather than stew in my frustrations or bemoan my lack of sleep.
• I can lay down the burdens (sleep deprivation!), the accidents (not again!), the failures (mostly mine) of the day and allow God to redeem, provide and sustain.

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Lord, Gently Lead Me

That same wise mentor also pointed me to a wonderful verse from the book of Isaiah, one that consistently encourages me as a mother of young children.  I leave you with this reminder from the Lord of the universe, our Jehovah Raah, the Lord our Shepherd:

He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
He gently leads those that have young.
~Isaiah 40:11

Today, I choose thankfulness.  What are you thankful for?

 Top photo courtesy of Detanan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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