Yesterday Was A No Good, Rotten, Very Bad Day

Disclaimer - For those of you we spent time with yesterday please do not take offense the post only pertains to the three Jagers involved

I woke up being very excited about our day yesterday. First I must say expectations are horrible, when will I learn? Anywho..... we had a play date set up with friends we hadn't seen in awhile for the morning. Followed by haircuts and ending with what I thought would be a nice family dinner at home. Now I will tell you how it really went.

It started with crabby kids that I should have kept home, but we went out anyway and started off having a wonderful playdate. This led into children not remembering their manners and altogether forgetting what it means to be kind. After a nice lunch we wrapped up our playdate and moved on. In the car we I gently reminded them about the way we treat others and sustained a consequence of losing the wii for the rest of the day. I thought this would do it, I thought we would learn from this exercise, but no there was more to come. Next we went for a haircut with my sister. My kids generally do well with this (notice the world generally). This ended with one of children making my sister cry because that child decided to yell that they didn't like their haircut, and then proceeded to melt into a puddle in the chair. How embarrassing I wanted to slide under a rock, however I scooted the two "angels" out of the salon and into the car. In the car I gave them their second complete lecture of the day on kindness and the famous rules, behavior and expectations speech. The child called their auntie and apologized. The Auntie graciously forgave the child and told the child that next time they would have a consultation about what the child was expecting for a cut (bless you Emily I love you). It was only about 2:45 and I was already loosing my mind. My sister-in-law had offered a massage and I knew that the option of bringing my children at this point was out of the question and I was loosing hope quickly. But what happened next was nothing short of a miracle.....my husband walked through the door a couple of hours early and suggested I take the rest of the evening for myself (did I mention how much I love this man).

Why am I sharing this truly humiliating day with you? It all boils down to my prayer time before falling asleep. I was thanking God for my children and then praying for the next day and that it would be smoother when the next series of thoughts came into my head. God reminded me about His Grace and His Love. He reminded me that I myself have No Good, Rotten, Very Bad Days. Days that I wake up grouchy and totally fail at my job as a mom/wife but also at my job of being a child of God. Then I started to think about how God feels on these days. I am sure he wants to smack me up side the head but instead he offers me His Love, His Forgiveness and His Grace. Instead he gives me a chance at a do over. He wipes my slate clean and allows me to go on. In all of this I need to remember that my kids are going to have bad days as well and there will not always be a strong reason for it other than they are just having bad days. It is my job to teach them about Grace by offering it to them.

I learn so much form my job as MOM. I learn so much from it I can't imagine what I would be missing if I wasn't one. Sure I might be a bit saner at times but I would be a whole lot emptier in a lot of ways.

And by the way we had an absolutely fabulous day today and not because my children were perfect angels, although they were very good. But because I went into my day with a different outlook and realizing I am not much different than those two. I am a child of God just as they are which means I am broken, imperfect and a work in progress as well.