Sep. 21, 2009 - Awesome Mom Moments
There are some days, some hours, or even some minutes that can make a mom feel AWESOME. I had one the other day -- just a moment, but I felt like, "Yeah, that's right. Whose tha' mama? Yeah, me, that's who!"
After a trip to the local Fall Festival at a nearby park, the boys came home with a sackful of candy as prizes from the carnival games. A few chews later, and Espen had gum in his hair. (He said Baz put it there, but when Baz just looked blankly at him, I knew better. Baz would definitely be the kind to take credit for such a great trick.)
Espen was about to participate in that great Kindergarten rite of passage -- cutting his own hair. I caught him standing on the toilet in front of the bathroom mirror, about to snip his life -- er, his hair -- away.
I calmly took the scissors from him, and walked him to the kitchen. "Mah-ahhhhhhm....I have Guuuuum in my Haaaaaaaaair!" He moaned. "I'll probably go bald now. Oh great!" And he carried on, while I got out a butter knife, and the peanut butter jar.
His eyes widened. "WHAT are you going to DO with THAT?" He asked, shocked.
I didn't say anything, but put a little dollop on the end of the knife, and generously coated the entangled strands. About 20 seconds of working with my fingers, and copious continued moans from Espen, and the gum was free!
TallDad entered the room, and looked confused. "Peanut butter? To get out gum?" He looked at Espen's gum-liberated hair. "How did you know what to do?"
I tried not to get puffed up on my own peanutty-tricksy-ness. But I did...I felt proud. I've never done the peanut butter trick before. I didn't really know if it would work. But I went for it. I'm a mom -- that's my job.
Of course, not every day goes like that -- you know the days -- when you don't really believe in corporal punishment, but you give your child a swat on the behind anyway....when you know that yelling really doesn't solve anything, but you haul off and give a vehement sermon in "that monster voice" anyway....when you have a lot to get done, but sit down on the couch and stare blankly for awhile....
But -- those days fade quickly into the background when you have an awesome mom moment. For now, though my fingers smelled slightly of peanut butter, all was right with the world. And I was on top of it.
Or was I?
I know the peanut butter example is quite simple, and un-ostentatious, but I think that the simplest or grandest awesome mom momenta come when we choose to involve God. In this case, it was God calmly guiding my memory back to hearing, once or twice, that peanut butter can get gum out of hair, somehow. Though I opened the jar, really without praying (does anyone commonly pray over the opening of a jar? A jar of peanut butter? You are a better mom than I....), yet I think that God, the Holy Spirit, and Christ are with us in any moment. The Lord doesn't just wait around for grand occasions. He desires to be with us through it all. Even the times of peanut butter.
A priest friend recently led a short retreat for the Teams of Our Lady group in which TallDad and I participate. He said that most Westerners say, in prayer, "God, help me with this...Get me through this..." etcetera. We would do better to pray in this way, "God, DO THIS for me. God, take charge of this, and I'll just be your instrument."
That was a real "Ah-HA!" moment for me.
In the first way, we are saying we don't really need God. We're saying, "God, I pretty much got this covered, but if you could just give MY efforts, which I entirely control, a little boost, I bet I could complete this task." We can take care of things all right just on our own, thank you very much, Lord. EXTRA help is all we need.
However, in the second way, we acknowledge the reality of the situation. Which is "We don't do nuthin' without the Big Guy's say-so and blessin'." Amen. When we pray humbly in this second way, We get ourselves OUT of the WAY, God works (many times through us), but it's always God that does it. Always.
Aw yeah.
What is an awesome mom moment you have had lately -- what has God blessed you with? Please share, for the encouragement of others, and those that are having 'not-so-awesome-mom" days -- give us hope that there will always be more awesome moments to come.
Comment
Oct. 4, 2009 - Being God's Instrument
Posted by Anonymous
My son had chosen to steal. When discovering his transgression, I confronted him. He ultimately fessed up. Inside I was screaming. But, that's not what came out of my mouth. I knelt down in front of my child, held his hands and with tears in my eyes I told him, "God had great plans for you. Spectacular plans. Big, big plans. When you choose to steal, you choose to walk away from God and His plans for you. Satan knows that God has plans for you and is waiting for you to make bad choices."
