As I type this, I am sharing the floor with V and Jonah--and the TV is announcing, "oh mutant plastic powered giant backward suckie!" I have no idea what cartooners are even TRYING to say to these kids anymore!! Ahh, family togetherness!
This weekend was as bad as one could be, and still leave us with life and limb. I felt entirely unable to create (of my own doing) anything of value or good on Sunday, which is saying a lot considering I ate ice cream and squeezed in a nap. One argument after the other between the Snyders and V not to mention 4-8 neighborhood kids, various needs to empty pockets of stolen goods and the oh so delightful berage of "I hate you, you $#*!...." Well...it was HARD to find the spirit, to be sure. Still, at day's end, I managed to find my pillow and just enough peace to sleep (mostly) through the night, and start today with a (mostly) clean shirt and a (slight) smile. Ahh, Mondays.
Throwing my clothes in the washing machine (my delight in remembering I have only 2 toddlers today! WOW!) this morning, I was really overwhelmed by the truth I had been missing yesterday...God commanded to "Feed my sheep..." teaching that all we do for others we are doing for Him. Can I count WASHING the clothes of a child in state custody as doing for Him?? It stuck me, that in my fear of UTTER failure this weekend as a foster parent, I TRIED. (Or as Joe reminded me, I came with a big heart) and I did. I did not do well (in all my moments of, "V, you HAVE to do as I ask....put the bat down....") but that I did. I DID wash the clothes of this small and very wounded boy. I DID tuck him in, and (ever so seldomly) helped him smile. I DID show my kids why their example makes more of a difference than an 8,11 or 14 year old would imagine it could....I DID try to be a family with 8 then 9 then 11 people who ARE NOT. I DID, so I can have the spirit. It reminded me of something I wrote a long time ago, "God does not want us to wait for a perfectly weeded garden before we seek to reap our harvests." Surely, waiting to be perfect to feed ourselves will leave us starving, and our harvests rotten in the fields.
I needed to be reminded of that, and in one basket of sour and slightly wet laundry, I found it.
Praise the little things
(And Tide gentle scents with color-safe bleach)
XOX!
Days 6-8: Moving
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If you were to choose the elements of a perfect place to live, you might be
like a deer caught in headlights. Sometimes, you have to go somewhere else
to s...
2 comments:
Heavenly Father’s plan includes opposition in all things. So yes it’s hard – sometimes very hard, but it’s supposed to be! That’s the whole point - if it wasn’t hard it would not be worth it. It’s there for a reason. It motivates us, inspired us – physically, spiritually, emotionally to become the person that we can be, that Heavenly Father knows each of us can be.
We are each destined for GREATNESS, for we are each children of our Heavenly Father, who loves us and cares for us. As we each individually journey along the road back Home, we will be tried, but we will be triumphant. Eternal glory is for each of us. Believe both IN Jesus Christ, and I believe Him when He says that this is true.
The first and great commandment is to accept and to love Jesus Christ with all of our heart and mind and soul. And the second like unto the first is to the same love one another. We’re commanded to love one another, of that we are certain. What we get to choose is HOW we love one another (the whole agency thing).
... yeah we don't get it right all the time ... but then again, I am not sure that we're supposed to ... that's what tomorrows are for
i heart you! and, i agree.. the weird things they say on kids' cartoons these days are bazaar! this is what i got out of one of them: "a man goes in to see the doctor.. he says, 'doc- i can't get rid of my bad breath, what can i do for it?' the doctor says, 'well, you can either quit biting your nails or stop scratching your butt.'" ohmigosh! jimmy and i looked at each other and started laughing so hard!
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