So I have been wanting to share this story and encouragement with you, but truthfully I was having a hard time finding where to put the encouragement at. Let me tell you the story.
To the side is my daughter, who at the time was about 20 months old. She loves being a 'good' helper! In the summer, she is outside constantly and I just let the doors open so I can track her by sound because we are in, out, and everywhere (we live out in country). I was so excited because I was getting dishes done and I could see her playing in the garage from my window and my 4 month was napping, when I hear - nothing! Insert dramatic music, da-da-daaa! Then I hear something very light and then nothing again! Every mom in the world knows, nothing means something! So I go to the garage and what do I see but her attempting to feed the cat, if that is what you call it! There is cat food throughout the entire 2 bay garage with a cat and dog looking like they hit the jackpot. So I explain to her we do not put cat food on the floor like that we put it in the dish and the kitty has enough food now to last a week. After naps, we go outside again and she goes on her adventures again and I hear what I assume to be a lid and what to my wondering eyes should appear when I round the corner of the garage with the baby, but CAT FOOD scattered all over the garage again. A little smaller containment area this time. She was suppose to be getting toys but the cat must have looked hungry, I'm guessing, and that I have the world's strongest 1 year old that can open up the cat food tub with a flick of a finger and I have wrestle it.
Now this Mommy is getting a little tired of this game and add in a grouchy 4 month old. I reclean everything back up, again, and make sure the lid is on super tight, again, and redistract her, again! We are playing having a wonderful day only catching slight whiffs of cat food in the air from touching it some many times during the day.
Later in the day, it is getting close to supper time so I run in the house to get a few of the items cooking when I hear a crash! Another sound a mom doesn't want to hear, but no crying! I blunder out to the garage again, and what to my wondering eyes does appear this time, but my daughter holding CAT POOP!!!
Yes, you heard me right, she is holding cat poop!!!! She was trying to ride her tricycle around the garage when she crashed into the cat liter and cat food and upset them both!! That is my best guess from my crash reconstruction! I started to lose my cool because how in the world does this happen?! We have an entire garage and porch and she finds the 5 ft square area to crash a bike and not only stop but keep going to make the mess to its fullest degree! And then decide out of everything to clean up, the cat poop!!! After 2 sentences into losing my cool, I stopped, it definitely was not by own power, but God reminding me she is only a child! The devotion I had read earlier in the week came back to me reminding me that you should not get upset over things that kids don't understand, you need to teach them. My daughter did not completely understand, but she did know it would upset me so she began trying to clean it up, even if that consisted of picking up -cat poop!
I wish I could say I didn't lose my temper at all but I did! I have been praying about what verse I could even try to tie into this and this is what I got -
No matter what type of day you are handed, whether it is a handful of dandelions or a handful of cat poop, you need to give and show the fruits of the spirit ~ love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This does not mean you, and definitely not me, will ever not lose our temper again, trust me I will be the first to admit I fail at this wayyyyy to many times, but we need to pray that we can show these fruits not just in the happy times but also in the frustrating times!
Just remember this is something you can laugh at and tell years to come! Good luck mommies, I will be praying for you!
"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23
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