Read the last post to understand it all.
It is 10:15am and Tristan, Annaliese and Gavin went until now to eat their eggs. The deal is you have to eat breakfast to get snack (another major temptation for me was to forgo this rule for today and bypass breakfast...I had not made it yet so it wouldn't be wasted)....so at 10:05 snack began and would end and they needed to eat those eggs to get their snack. There has been much whining and complaining and everything a whiny hungry child does here this morning, but I am proud to say we made it. Several other dynamics happened after I blogged this morning. After I blogged I began to realize the consequences of my choice of choosing to form my children. It would take time! It is always a surprise to me for some reason that my time is not my own. I planned on going to mass and running errands. We would leave at 8:45am this morning and head out, but it all changes because I could not take hungry kids to mass. There is no reason to put myself through that misery and fight of those circumstances. God was actually trying to teach me something different this morning and continuing with my plan this morning would have gone against his will for me. On a normal day if this had happened and my plans had to change I would go around basically cussing and frustrated moving about the house very angry that I was not able to go to mass and blaming the kids because it is in fact their fault! This morning only by the grace of God did I realize mass is not where I needed to be. I wanted to be, but my want is different from my need. I didn't choose not to go, but my circumstances dictated. So I could let it steel my joy and ruin my day or we could come up with a different plan. So here we go different plan I will try you today and meet God's grace along the way instead of meeting me and my frustrations. I loved choosing the different plan and my joy is still there and growing in the grace of God even though I didn't make it to mass. My children are better off for it and so am I! On the exterior this doesn't seem like it would outweigh mass, but without a doubt for today this was a gift from God and allowed me to come very close to him. How this crazy thing called motherhood is slowly teaching me and yet tomorrow I will probably be faced with similar circumstances and there is a really good chance I will choose to meet myself and frustrations rather than meeting the grace of God.
Actually, tomorrow, you will be cruisin' baby. Eggs will be the last thing on your mind! Good job mama! I packed northern beans and rice in Alex's lunchbox today to eat b/c he said he wasn't hungry when we had them for dinner the night before. I'd be willing to bet he won't turn down beans and rice again ;)
ReplyDeleteLauri,
ReplyDeleteGod's timing is so perfect. I just checked your blog yesterday and read these two posts about the eggs, and I reflected on what you said about meeting God's grace instead of your own frustration.
So, today is our 9 year anniversary, and Dion is on vacation, and I had plans for getting lots of stuff done before we headed out to a nice dinner to celebrate. Then he woke up with the stomach flu, and Bailey - who had the stomach flu Saturday night into Sunday night - started complaining that she felt bad again like she was going to throw up. So -- there went our plans. I spent the whole day worrying about keeping the house as sanitized as possible, checking on my two sickies, and entertaining the younger two kids. Completely the opposite of how I thought my day was going to go.
Like most people, I have always struggled with a bad attitude when my plans are disrupted, and today was no exception. But I brought to mind your blog posts and prayed that God's grace would override my human reaction to the circumstances. God showed me some good that came out of the day, like being able to spend one-on-one time outside with Audrey while Jonah napped, and then getting Jonah outside to play after his nap since the weather is so nice today. I can't say that this is how I would choose to spend NEXT anniversary, but thanks to God and His using you here, the day wasn't a complete waste or failure on my part.
Thank you a million!!
Love,
Keri