Confessions of Motherhood

As I stood at the sink determined to get the dishes washed, the smell of ketchup making me sick, and grumbling to myself about my broken dishwasher, I could hear the drama starting. One child wanted to mix all of the play dough colors together, while the other child wanted to keep them separate. (She was tired of playing with brown play dough) At that exact time I heard a crash come from the other room and the crying began. With the older kids still bickering about the play dough, and the dishes still needing to be washed, I rushed to see what had happened in the other room.

It all happened so fast that I still don’t know how they accomplished it. I was only in the other room for a minute. But somehow a cup of water was spilled on the table, and all over the play dough, one child was on top of the table with an already wet wash rag trying to clean up the water, one child was crying about what she perceived as ruined play dough, a chair was broken, A baby was crying, I stubbed my toe on the door frame, my corn allergic child got a hold of my Dr. Pepper, and all of my nice stacks of schoolbooks were now all over the living room floor.

As I looked around all I could do was yell, “STOP, EVERYBODY STOP!!!” At that moment time was frozen, (even the baby stopped crying) everybody was waiting on me to get control of this situation. What could I do? Usually this would have killed any chance of me having a good day. But as I looked around, something changed. I remembered a scripture that my mom always used to quote, Proverbs 17:22 - "A merry heart does good, like a medicine." I asked myself if all of that stress was worth it. NO! I instead chose to find humor in the situation, at least they were trying to clean their mess up, nobody was hurt, and I had three blessings from God.

Sometimes as parents we get overwhelmed and forget about the blessings. I hear people complain all the time about their children, while others wonder why you would ever want them. It’s important that as mothers we learn not only to pick our battles, but to laugh at seemingly stressful situations. I would be lying if I said that being a mother is always easy, but it’s one of the most rewarding things you can do with your life. Count your blessings every day. Don’t sweat the small stuff, and remember to laugh.

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one's youth.
Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
—Psalm 127:3-5