Ever Had One of Those Days?

I stormed through the door with David in one hand and my frustrations in the other.

“I just want one hour to myself!” I shouted as I made my less than gracious entrance.

Unfortunately, my husband was working from home that day and witnessed my 30-year old temper tantrum. My 8-month old son was being extremely clinging and fussy. If I left him for one second, he started to whine and moan. . .and so did I.

It was only 10 in the morning and already I felt trapped. Trapped in my own home. Trapped in my role as a mother. Trapped behind the incessant needs and demands of my baby. The thoughts whirled inside like a tornado, threatening and vicious. . .I can never do what I want to do. Ever. For the next 20 plus years my life revolves around him. Humph.

After my mini breakdown that day, I realized that my son was cutting his front two teeth. That next morning I felt the hard and pointy pieces of bone poking through his tender gums. I felt horrible. Horrible because I had no grace, no patience for him. Horrible because I must be the most selfish mother in the world.

Ah, those days. The clingy days. The crabby days. The fussy days. The frustrating days. The teething days. We all have them. But we cannot let those days dictate and define us. This too shall pass.

It’s all too easy to forget on those days when we feel done with motherhood, to be thankful.

Thankfulness takes us out of the prison of our self-centered lives and into the wide-open spaces of his grace.

Thankfulness releases us from our shortsighted perspective to see things from the heights of heaven.

Thankfulness realizes that life. is. enough. We are content just to be. To be a mother. To be a wife. To be His beloved.

Later that week, I was shaken by some news I shouldn’t have seen on Facebook. A couple’s 15-month old baby died in her sleep. I sat breathless on my bed. Images of my ungrateful land ungracious attitude earlier in the week flashed through my mind, as I cried out for this couple I’d never met. Indeed this is every parent’s nightmare.

In that moment, a new Holy Spirit resolve came welling up from inside me. More than one hour to myself, I needed to ask God for supernatural thankfulness in every circumstance. That I would truly see the child I hold in my as the most tangible, priceless, miraculous gift from God I could ever receive.

My son is a blessing straight from His heart to my husband and me. There is nothing, I repeat to myself today, there is NOTHING worth getting upset about…even on those days.

No matter how dark those days may be, I can release my frustrations at the foot of His cross and embrace thankfulness and my baby boy with both arms.  

How can you put thankfulness into action today?