Peace Over Impatience

My dear friend Jenny sent me this book awhile back ...

 

... and it's helping me become the mom I've always wanted my children to have.

 

 

The other morning I read the following passages:

 

"Choosing to be a servant-mother means ... that, by faith, I have already made a decision to make myself available in the routine tasks and myriad interruptions of daily life because I believe it is God's will for me to serve my family through them. Making this choice ahead of time means I will expect problems and needs to arise and be ready to deal with them in peace instead of impatience and resentment."

 

"And yet somewhere, over the years, the Lord convicted me that the future was not where real life began. Each day was God's perfect will for me. There would be no wasted years of "just taking care of the needs of my young children." On the contrary, these years would be among the most important of my life."

 

And the remainder of the day, after I was encouraged and inspired by these words, went something like this ...

 

I did about 20 push ups and one set of crunches before Henry woke up. Workout over.

 

I folded laundry as Claire unfolded it.

 

My neighbor stopped to chat as I was running late loading the kids in the car.

 

I cooked. Adam "helped."

 

As we were sitting down to lunch Tyson came to the door covered in mud and had to be rinsed off, dried off and tied up.

 

Adam was "helping" me vacuum up a (different) mess Tyson made and the hand vac (which was filled with thousands of tiny chia seeds) exploded when he dropped it on the hard wood floor.

 

I sat down to rest my brain and feet and soul ... and Claire woke up.

 

I got stuck at a railroad crossing while already running late to Kindergarten pick up.

 

And when the kids were all in bed, the remainder of my night was spent folding their laundry, packing Henry's lunch, unloading the dishwasher and sweeping ... still finding chia seeds.

 

I could go on ... and on ... and on. And I'm pretty sure I'm not alone.

 

Now the thing is, all of these interruptions are annoying. And challenging. And I can't say I didn't feel frustrated numerous times throughout the day. But I can say that I did not take that frustration out on my kids. I didn't say something I regretted later. I didn't even sigh heavily just so they would know "mommy is working hard here!" And believe me when I tell you that is not me. Not. At. All. 

 

I am reminded daily that God doesn't want perfection. I'm glad. Because I will never be a perfect mom. He does however desire to see faith and obedience. So when my kids are pulling from all directions, and the dog is rolling in mud, and the neighbor stops to tell me about his literary dreams, I am choosing to handle it all with "peace instead of impatience and resentment."

Little things help along the way. This poem - which has become my daily prayer - is one of them.