Reciving Grace on the Horrible-No-Good-Very-Bad Days of Motherhood

Its a hard job living out your faith.  It's an even harder job to train up your children in a household of faith; especially when it's run by sinners, mistake-makers, yellers, temper-losers, and just-trying-to get-by-ers.

Yesterday was one of those horrible-no-good-very-bad-days that come to pass in Mommyhood.  By 8:29 am (Because I actually looked and the clock when this thought entered my mind.) I had already had enough.  I had enough "Mommy, will you (insert demand)",  "Mommy, she (insert tattle)", "Mommy, get me (insert any inanimate object of your choice {I have heard them all})"... I was already tired of the name MOMMY before 8:30 had ticked by.   It didn't help that my oldest was home from school with pink eye AND I had to start him on eye drops 5 times a day for 5 days, AND my other two children had to participate for precautionary measure... (after the math, that will total 75 eye drops for the next 5 days... knowing I had this task ahead of me I was already ticked off  because I was now aware that I will be fighting the ominous "Battle Eye Drop" for the next 5 days...talk about a Debbie Downer on your Monday Morning!!! BOOOOO for Eye Drops!)  

So, needless to say I started my day off on the wrong foot.  I took that little tangible piece of justified self pity and let it form a cloud over my day that set the forecast for gloom.

Because of my passive aggressive rebellion against the eye drops I was a woman on a mission.  A mission to make everyone else's day as miserable as mine.  Since the mother is considered the "thermostat to her household" let's say I set the temp low... bone chilling low... and my children followed suit.  There was impatient moments, there were tears, there was frustration acted out in aggression, and then there were more tears.

My favorite line from yesterday's chaos...

Zadie: "Daxx pushed me!"

Me: "Daxx did you push your sister?"

Daxx:  "Well, no.  At least not with my hand." (That's okay because pushing with other appendages or objets is acceptable. not.)

(Have you ever had days like this, or am I alone?)

Since steam was already shooting from both ears before noon, both the littles were in bed for their naps at 11:30... which was an hour and a half earlier than normal.  I had all of 2 minutes of peace and quiet until that plan backfired and I had crying coming from one room and the other getting out of her bed every other minute...  (My blood is boiling just typing this!!  I loathe spoiled nap times.) 

So.  What do you do when it's 12:00 and you aren't sure if you can survive until BEDTIME?

I couldn't go back to bed.
I couldn't leave the house.
I couldn't lock myself in the bathroom.

In this weeks reading in our Mom's group at church the author talked about 4 crucial cultivation tools in parenting:

• Modeling
• Teaching
• Training
• Grace

I read that last night, after my horrible-no-good-very-bad-day and I was totally convicted, yet at the same time totally thankful. I love that the author added GRACE in her list.  Because guess what, that's what I need, as a parent, the most.  Grace. 

After my husband came home from work yesterday I took 20 minutes in my room by myself to regroup.  I needed to come out of that room a different woman.  So.  I made conscious decision to get through the rest of the night and wake up tomorrow and start over.  Freely receiving the grace to do so. 

After I came out, I cooked dinner, we ate at the table.  At the table we reflected on our day.  

Me: "Mommy did not have a good day today did she?"

Daxx: "No, none of us had a good day...but Mom we can start over tomorrow."

And that's what we will do.  We will start over tomorrow, receiving Grace for today, teaching our children to make amends where they need to be made and modeling how to do so.  Hopefully yesterday I taught my kids that we all make mistakes, we all have bad days, but it doesn't give us permission to treat others around us poorly.  Its is okay to apologize and it's okay to receive grace and start over new each day.  Isn't it cool that God gives us "days and nights" as a point of reference to start anew?  Thank.You.Jesus.  

Thanks for Reading!

This post is Linked Up to Doing You Well Wednesday #12 at "Prowess and Pearls"