One of Those Evenings...
Tonight was one of those nights where everything seems to go wrong. In England there is a great ad on TV that has people going about their daily lives with a big key sticking out of their backs. Every time something stresses them out, the key winds them up a bit more until the only thing that can unwind them is...(come on this is an ad in UK, you should guess what can unwind all those stressed out British people...)...a cup of tea of course! I felt that way tonight. Everything seemed to wind me up, like a key creaking away in my back..
Moses dumped out a big bag of garbage all over his room. Creak.
Ayana jumped off the toilet too early and peed on the floor. Creak.
Megan spilled a whole jug of juice on the kitchen counter. Creak.
Joshua ran in from soccer practice and spread clumps of dirt across the hallway. Creak.
I sat down with a headache, feeling quite sorry for myself. I'm so tired and busy I thought. My house is a mess and I still have to make lunches for tomorrow. Get all the kids to bed. Help Dave unpack the zillion grocery bags on the floor. Will I ever get that soothing, unwinding cup of tea???
Creak...that key was so tightly wound.Then I checked my emails.
A friend of mine has a tiny little boy that has just undergone a liver transplant. The email was telling us that things are not going well. The email asked us to pray for this little boy's life and for peace and a calm for the parents.
WHAM. Suddenly, I got perspective. Suddenly I felt privileged to be home with my healthy children, picking up after them, making lunches and cleaning up messes.
I realised that my "key" is often wound up too tight and I need to stop and reflect on how very, very thankful I am for my family and circumstances.
Maybe we all need to do that, stop and give thanks, for everything. For the little things. For the big things.
Finally, if you are reading this and you believe in prayer, please pray for little Andrew fighting for his life.