Life around here has been in full swing now that we are back into our activities, and I am pushing my schedule a bit for my business to reach some high goals I have set for this fall.  I will post some pics soon of our fall activities, we are really enjoying ourselves, but we are busy!  So I have not been on the computer a lot, but I will blog as I can, at least several times a week... but don't count on every day for a while!

I have SO much to share!  But, for the sake of this post, I am going to focus on this morning.  As I have shared before, Mr. Incredible has a part-time gig as a workship leader.  So, Sunday morning get ready for church time is a solo gig for me... a solo gig complicated by the fact that the church where he leads worship is not our home church (meaning he just got a job there but we were not a part of the church before that and we have not left our church we call home).  So, I try to get everybody ready and out the door to go where he leads worship and then when he is done we caravan to our church from there.  It makes for a very, very long morning for all of us. 

This morning, I started getting everyone ready over an hour before we had to go.  And yet, 5 minutes after the ABSOLUTE deadline to leave, Violet was looking for a piece of her chosen outfit which she had not informed me was missing, and then 10 minutes later after she changed and got in the car, Dash unbuckled his carseat that I had buckled him in and moved up into the center row of seats while I was getting Jack-Jack in.  By this time, the service starts in 5 minutes and we are still 30 minutes away, not to mention getting boys in the nursery, etc.  And I turn around and just scream LOUD at Dash, "GET IN YOUR SEAT!  NOW!" 

And he starts crying.

And it suddenly dawns on me what I am modeling: do whatever you have to do, rush everybody you love around and push them, make them feel bad if they forget something or lose something or have a delay, yell at them and use an angry tone if you have to, but GET THEM TO THE CHURCH ON TIME AT ANY COST!

Well, the clenched-teeth "WE ARE GOING TO WORSHIP THE LORD, &*$#@*!" philosophy just does not fly with me, and I have never wanted to be that way.  So, I stopped yelling and just stopped.  I looked at Dash and just said, "I am sorry.  I am sorry I yelled at you.  That was not kind or honoring, and in our family I want us to be kind and honor each other even when we are frustrated."  Then I apologized to Violet for pushing her along and making her feel bad about losing the piece of her outfit.  I told her that yes, she is responsible for keeping her outfits together and planning ahead, but that because she is seven, I am responsible for helping her learn how to be organized and plan ahead and I blew it on that count.

And then I decided we were not going to go to the first church today.  I told the kids calmly and joyfully that I wanted us to have a wonderful morning and that they could get out of the car and play until it was time to go to our home church.  I went back inside, nursed jack-Jack and put him down for the morning nap he has to skip in order to make it to the first church service, and then put on some worship music and cleaned my house.  I figured it was an act of service for my family, especially for my husband who has to run around so much on Sundays and then go back to his "real job" on Monday bright and early.  I sang, prayed and thought a lot as I worked, and worked through some pretty deep heart issues with God while my two older children played perfectly with not one fight (which is saying something lately).   Then we got in the van an hour and a half later and headed off to meet Daddy at our church, happy and prepared to worship.  The worship service this morning was simply incredible.  It touched my heart deeply and really connected me with the Lord.  Was that because of my heart prep time while cleaning or not?  Don't know, but I am glad I didn't keep on going with my half crazed, joyless and frustrated attitude and push my children around all morning. 

I have long felt that satan wants our Sunday morning to be terrible and full of fighting because if he cannot keep us out of church, he will at least work to make it a miserable experience for all involved and rob us of love, joy, and peace on our families and hearts.  I am very glad to say that for this one day, his plan did not work in our home.  It was one Incredible morning !  :)