Y’all, by 9 am this morning I was ready to call it a day, curl up in bed and stop adulting. Legit, I was done!
I hadn’t woken up with that intention, I mean, I had a plan. The day was going to be great, I was going to be a great mom, I was going to be a kind wife, etc…..then reality happened and nothing went according to plan!
Refer to Exhibit 1.
Yes my friends, that is my front loader washing machine leaking sudsy water from the bottom of the machine…..on the second floor of my home!
As I was about to leave my home….20 minutes early so I could get some extra training in at the gym, I ran upstairs to grab something for one of the kids, and as I walked by the laundry room I noticed my floors were seeping water.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Imagine full on panic mode! I quickly called my husband to come figure this out. (Mind you he had no idea how to fix this either, I was simply not willing to deal with this alone.) The best we could do was clean up the mess, move the washer, soak up water, drain filters and call in the protection plan company to come fix this problem. (Home Depot will now be able to get me hook, line and sinker for protection plans for the rest of my life after their amazing customer service this morning!)
I’m now incredibly late for my day, but not wanting to call it quits I told myself to press on and still make it to my gym class. Only to have a child throw a tantrum when dropped off at grandma’s house, and have my husband call to tell me about the speed traps on the road I was going to take to the gym.
Not only am I late, I can’t even speed! (Not that one should ever speed.)
By that point, I got a call from a girlfriend and was so flustered all I could spew out was, “This morning is a mess, my washer is leaking, I’m late and frazzled please just pray I survive til bedtime!”
End of call.
Friends, I was D.O.N.E.
But I had a choice. I could honestly quit the day, wallow in my misfortune or press in to Jesus and keep going. I chose the latter. And am I ever grateful for friends who will pray me through rough days!
I wish I could say the day perked up and was perfect after that, but the truth is, as I sit here and write this I am doing a test load in my washer and have towels all around to see if we can find the leaky hose. My five year old decided getting his hair cut was the trauma of his life, my eight year old got in the car after camp with the attitude of a full blown hormonal teenager and my husband still has hours of work ahead of him tonight and NOTHING is ready for dinner yet because one kid is still at basketball practice.
Y’all life is messy. My life is messy. I can post pretty pictures and we can read fancy websites about how to keep life happy and pretty, but days like today are still coming.
Honestly, the me a few years ago would have “quit” the day early on. But if I had done that, I would have missed the sweetness of choosing the joy in the midst of the chaos.
Refer to exhibit 2.
(Yes, my friends, those are hot, gooey, glorious Chick-Fil-A cookies!)
You see, I had planned a quick lunch with my tribe. Some girlfriends that walk along side this life with me. Who send me random insane text messages at all hours, who are walking the path of motherhood, who are trying to serve Jesus, girlfriends who love cookies and love celebrating, my people.
If I had quit when the struggle came, I would have missed the opportunity to celebrate. Celebrating new jobs, new babies, new opportunities. Even celebrating having a protection plan on the washing machine.
We celebrate EVERYTHING! Because Jesus came to give us life, and life more abundantly. Sometimes that means the messes of this life are abundant. But if I can keep my heart focused on Him and not the mess, I can choose joy and celebrate every moment as a gift.
Because truly, there is too much good in the day to not celebrate.
There was the grace of God to send me upstairs and find the mess before I walked out of the house for 7 hours and could have had sitting water damaging my floors.
There was grace in the phone call warning me to be cautious in my haste.
The grace in the cookie with friends to remind me that every day is special.
The grace of the hair dresser who knows my boys for years and deals with high maintenance drama.
The grace in my little ones laughter as they ask me to tickle them over and over.
The grace in a husband taking a kid to basketball practice so I don’t wrangle all three boys for an hour long torture session, and the grace of leftovers for dinner.
And the simple grace of having peace surround me as I pressed into Jesus.
There is grace all around me, if I’ll open my eyes and see it. How about your day? Did you see the grace abound? Are you looking for it? Did you celebrate life today?
Be sure to leave a comment and let me know what grace you found in your day! How did you celebrate today?