A “But” Day

Today was a “but” day for me.  No, not a “butt” day…a “but” day.  Infinitely different kinds of days but separated by one tiny thing.  Let me explain.  My day did not start out well.  First it started early.  I was up at 2:45 OMG butt crack of dawn sweating, heart racing from a nightmare.  I spent the next 30 minutes praying and just as I was falling back asleep my precious husband’s alarm for work went off at 3:15am (which makes me feel much worse for him than me because that is crazy early to get up.  Thankfully he doesn’t do that every day!)  He leaves about 4:00am, at which time our black lab decides she is going to pout that Daddy left home that early and decides to pace the room for a while.  Then 5:45 comes and I wake up to make sure the teenager did not sleep though her alarms…yes plural!  By 6:25 I hear my 10 year old breathing at the door.  He knows he’s not allowed to come into our room until 6:30, so he stands there…mr. mouthbreather…and waits.  I drive the teenager to the bus stop because it is snowing (YAY snowing!!!  I do love me some snow) and I am just a terribly nice person and didn’t want her to freeze her butt off because she did just so happen to leave her jacket at school yesterday.  Grrrrrrrr.  I get back home a few minutes later after a honking altercation with the school bus that I just REALLY don’t want to get in to…to awaken the 3rd grumpy monkey.  #3 is NOT a morning person and #2 is incredibly gifted at hacking off non-morning people (your truly included).  I did finally get everyone off to school and had a precious breakfast with an awesome friend.  Once that finished it became errand day, i.e. big massive grocery shopping day at 2 different stores….and it’s a full on blizzard.  As I said before I LOVE SNOW but not when it’s falling down the back of my jacket as I try to load 2 weeks worth of groceries for a family of 5 in the back of the minivan.  I get grocery shopping done and come home to a 3 foot tall pile of clean clothes that have yet to be folded (yep, they are still staring at me front across the room as I write this and I think the pile is getting bigger.  Laundry procreation is one of the great mysteries of house work life.  That and the one sock out of the dryer phenomenon.  The morning dishes were still piled up in the sink.  The house looks like the Tasmanian devil tore through here at epic speeds and the snow is piling up to a solid 5 inches that need to be shoveled before leaving the house to pick up the boys because we face north and if you face north in a colder climate you KNOW…always shovel before driving or you will have ice tracks on your driveway until May.  Top all that off with the worst back pain I’ve had in a month.  Get the day?  Had that day before?  Now, before you start feeling bad for me (I hope you don’t but if you do…stop right there).  All this above story was the “butt”…not the “but”.

The “but” totally changed my day.  The “but” day is when life is biting you in the butt BUT you CHOOSE God!  Today the “but” was me choosing God and choosing to see all the amazing blessings He has given to me.  The “but” showed up as I was able to walk through the grocery store sans kids and distractions (yes, my children are grocery store soul sucking distractions when they keep asking “Mom, can I have”) and pray for some friends looking for a rental home and to pray for my daddy and his medical stuff today.  The “but” showed up as I was able to stop and say no to the insanely messy house and yes to a quiet time with God.  Me and my Bible and some good good time.  The “but” was snow shoveling enough to get out to pick up the monkey brothers and then have fun shoveling the rest with my 10 year old and teach him how to do it.  The “but” is when I was able to chose to be thankful for the groceries and the job God has given to Gregg and the money God has provided so we could purchase al these groceries and choosing not to whine that I had to put them all away.  The “but” is looking at that pile of laundry and smiling because I know we are blessed to have clothes…and not just clothes, an abundance of clothes.

Here’s what I know.  A “but” day is a choice.  I am sad to admit that I don’t always choose to have a “but” day.  Often I embrace the grumpiness that life brings.  I choose to stress rather than seek joy.  I choose to try and take control instead of turning it all back over to God who is really in control anyway.  I know that as I choose, it does not mean that my house will magically be clean and the dishes will magically be done and the laundry will fold itself, although I do secretly wish that I was Mrs. Weasley and I could do magic housecleaning.  It does not mean that my children will be happy go lucky every minute and be angelic and calm…angelic and calm????yeah, like that ever happens in this house.  We are all way to spicy and fun for that 😉  But today I chose to have a different  day.  I  chose to not embrace the frustrations but instead to run after God, to love on Him and learn from Him and my day turned out so so so much better than it would have had I chose to be grumpy.  Next time you’re having one of “those” days, make the choice…have a “but” day.  Let go, give it all over to God and enjoy!

Patience Pants and Life Frustrations

“Nothings going right in my life!”  “I’ve been waiting and waiting for things to get better and they just never do!”  Oh there are thousands of statements like these.  So often it feels like we live in bummer world. So many people are living a life that they seem to hate or a life that has at very least disappointed them time and time again.  Things haven’t turned out how they thought they would – time and time again.   We live in a fast food, if it doesn’t feel right…, it’s all about me, if you don’t make me feel good then don’t let the door hit ya where with good Lord split ya! kind of world.  Why?  Oh there are possibly as many reasons why as there are statements of life distaste but I have a thought…

Let me start with this.  I am blessed!  I am blessed in so many ways but one of the ways is that I go to a very real church.  I go to a church where smoke is not blown, the false prosperity gospel preached with a greasy smile is not preached.  I go to a church where people grow into disciples and community is desired.  This past weekend as Gregg and I sat in service we heard a message on reaping and sowing.  I know, I know, I know…you want to say STOP RIGHT THERE…I’ve heard this one.  Give all your money and God will give you more.  That was not this kind of message.  This was a message on the universal law of reaping and sowing in every part of life.   It doesn’t matter if you believe God made this world or it happened in some cosmic upchuck- the law of reaping and sowing is as true and universal as the law of gravity.  It exists.  Period.  End of story. 

Take a farmer.  If they don’t plant seed in the spring, there ain’t gonna be any crop to harvest in the fall.  Take a student.  If you don’t learn and study you aren’t going to pass the test and if you don’t pass in school there ain’t any diploma coming your way.  Take a marriage.  If you don’t pay attention to your spouse you aren’t going to have one for very long.  The list goes on and on and on.  It’s a universal law.  Truth.

So the message was awesome but there was this one line spoken that hit me bigger than even all the amazing rest.  I know our pastor knows he said it, but often when he hears himself say crazy profound truth he will stop and ask if we heard what he said because it was so deep and so good and so of God he didn’t want us to miss it.  I don’t remember that happening with this statement.  I don’t think he stopped, but he should have because it was so deep and so good and so of God and I am so glad I heard it.  Ready?  Here it is “If you’re going to get a harvest, you have to stay somewhere a long period of time” Pastor John Leach

BOOM!  Right there kids, that right there is pure awesomeness.  Why?  Because staying is a huge part of reaping and sowing. Staying, however, can look so small and get lost when you are talking about that universal law because you are so focused on the reaping and sowing part that you miss the staying part…and we as a people have missed it.  It is true that you reap what you sow.  And it is true that you are sowing even if you don’t think you are.  You can sow good seed or you can sow bad seed.  Totally your choice.  But here’s the thing…how many of us sow seed but then don’t put our patience pants on and wait for the harvest?  Patience pants are a big thing in the Marsh Big Top.  My children have often had to physically put their invisible patience pants on and wear them for a good long while.  Isn’t parenting fun sometimes 😉

But seriously, here are the questions burning a hole in my brain since we left church Saturday night.  How many of us have missed the good harvest because we could not keep our patience pants on and we bolted before the harvest came?  And how many of us have missed a good harvest because someone offended us and we got our panties in a bunch and instead of going to God with our problem and then trying to work things with the one that offended us we found it was easier to cut and run? Find a new friend, find a new church, find a new spouse, find a new job… Let me bring it closer to home. I ask myself (you ask yourself), Is there anywhere in my life that I am not growing? I’m not seeing good fruit? Is it possible it is that way because I agreed with the fast food, it’s all about me thought pattern of this world and even though I had invested time, talent and treasure, I cut and run too early because life didn’t look exactly how I thought it should look exactly when I thought it should look that way?

Let’s go back to the farmer. Our friend Farmer Joe plants corn seed. He’s very excited about the corn because it is Olathe sweet corn from Colorado (who isn’t excited about that corn! Seriously! Crazy yummy!) He plants in the spring, let’s say April just for kicks and giggles…April 18th to be exact. Does Farmer Joe go back on April 20th and expect his corn to be ready for harvest? Now that’s just silly. Everyone knows corn takes longer than that to grow. He goes back on July 4th because of the old saying “knee high by the 4th of July” (yeah I may be a city chick, my husband comes from a long line of farmers). Farmer Joe is a wise farming dude and he knows not to harvest when it’s knee high because the corn is growing… but not ready for harvest. It’s not until September or October that he finally goes out into the field and says it’s time. So he harvests the corn and the feasting on sweet golden yumminess commences. It takes a while.

So that’s corn. Now to life. When we plant good things in life, often it takes a while for the fruit to come. Ask any parent. Parenting: Parenting is a loooooooonnnngggg time (life time) thing. I am just now seeing my 14 year old regularly displaying some of the good things we taught her when she was a little. Work: When I was working outside the home as an audiologist, I didn’t fit a person with hearing aids and then they would immediately send me 20 friends to be fit. I spent time working with them and helping them and listening to them and investing in their hearing health and then after they not only knew I knew what I was doing but that I honestly cared about them, that’s when they sent me friends as patients. Marriage: I’ve been married almost 18 years now and my marriage is a-ma-zing. Why? Because we have worked on it. We have planted good seed over and over and over. When we had fights and rough times we didn’t give up and look for greener grass with someone else, we duked it out and listened to each other and learned about each other. My husband knows me better than any human on the plant. Why? because he has planted good seed and taken the time to know me. He has invested and stuck with me (and I with him) and now we are enjoying a harvest of marital happiness (and we continue to sow good seed so the good harvest continues).

I challenge you. If you feel like you keep making changes but your situations never changes. If you keep hopping from one job to another or one church to another or one relationship to another because you are always looking for a good harvest, may I suggest that maybe just maybe if you put on your patience pants, stay put and allow roots to develop and give it some time that life may end up sweeter and that the harvest may end up better than you could ever imagine.

Just a thought.

If you are interested in hearing Pastor John’s whole message here is the link. It’s week 2 of the Is it Possible series.
http://messages.jfc.org/messages/is-it-possible/is-it-possible-series.html