Coffee Stains…

So my attitude has been terrible lately….

Bad attitude about events I needed to attend

Bad attitude about potty training

Bad attitude about cleaning my house

Bad attitude about writing

Bad attitude….I prayed my attitude would not infect others. I believe mostly I kept it between God and I…There was that one morning…My bad attitude infected my kids…I am glad for grace…

And I have stained my clothes with coffee the last two days.

Here is what I realized…My bad attitude lasted as long as I kept to myself. My cave, my cocoon. Yes I need time to myself and I need quiet and I need to think, but God created us for community…

My bad attitude feeds on my solitary self-centered meditations. It feeds on my thoughts, my concerns, my disappointments. I flounder in self-pity and continue to pet and primp my bad attitude. I deserve better. I don’t want to do that! Everyone else needs to get with the program.

Then it happens…A friend calls, I enter into her world. I listen to what God is doing in her life, her concerns, her frustrations, her fears. I stop looking only to myself, my frustrations and see there is more out there. I discover that the world does not revolve around me. I find perspective in the middle of my irritation. My frustrations do not dissipate. My attitude doesn’t magically get better. However taking my eyes off of me and placing them on the One who has plans for me changes my heart. Why does it take a friend’s difficulties to draw my eyes to Him? I don’t really know, but one thing I do know.

God created community for this…to draw us out of our self-centered little holes and bad attitudes.

What have you learned through community that you couldn’t learn any other way? I can’t wait to hear!

It is That Time in Our House…

Potty training time.

I haven’t met anyone yet who says they love to potty train. I am in that boat. Yet at some point the child must learn.

Wednesday I gave a talk and had a babysitter come to watch my little potty training man. I gave her the run down on how the potty training was going, told her she may have to take him potty (instead of waiting for him to tell her he needed to go), and left.

When I got back my wonderful babysitter and I were debriefing and it came out.

Babysitter: “Yeah, I couldn’t really figure out what the Cheerios on the back of the toilet were for.”

Insert awkward smile and slightly red cheeks.

Me: “Oh, I uh forgot to mention that.”

Babysitter: “J informed me that he wanted “shoot them” and I figured it out.”

So the secret is out. We are using Cheerios as target practice and I forgot to tell my babysitter that I wasn’t allowing my children to eat while they did their business.

I am so glad my J is so verbal or I may have had a lot of explaining to do. 🙂

I would love to hear any funny story you have to share! Eccl 3:4 says there is a “time to laugh.” So lets make that time now! I can’t wait to hear your stories.

Please comment and share your stories! I can’t wait to get to know you!

Taking Time for Zacchaeus

“‘cchaeus, mommy I wuv dat song,” he lisps as he stands unmoving in the middle of the hallway of his school. “You sing it mommy pwease,” his eyes dance as he smiles and nods at me.

In my head I had a check-list of all the things we needed to do before picking up his sisters from school. Dishes to wash, visiting the potty to ensure my sweet son stayed on the potty train, sweep the floor under the table, start folding the five or six clean loads of laundry in the laundry room. I didn’t have much time, but time was what my boy needed at that minute.

I am not the mom with the clean house, laundry neatly folded. I am not the mom with the great craft ideas every week (although we do some crafts). I don’t always play with my children the minute they ask, but I have learned something. There are moments – moments to savor, enjoy, teach, and love. My little man is growing up, in what will feel like a few short days he won’t want to sing Zacchaeus any more.

So we stopped and sang Zacchaeus Was A Wee Little Man in the middle of the hallway, motions included. In fact we sang it through twice!

What do you need to take the time to do? Who do you need to call? Do you need to sing Zacchaeus with someone? Share with me…

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