No More Unglued Mama MorningsSample

PUT THE WORLD ON HOLD

I'm making a bold commitment: No more unglued mama mornings. In other words, I want our mornings to go better with less frustration, yelling, and chaos.

I started thinking about this last spring when we had a string of really hard mornings. One day, as I pulled up to the front of the school, the atmosphere inside the car was thick with tension. Not wanting the last words spoken to my middle-school daughter to be harsh, I tried to change the course of our conversation before she headed into her day. "Listen, I love you. I'm sorry we had a rough morning."

"We always have rough mornings," she shot back before getting out of the car and slamming the door.

Well, nothing quite makes a mom feel more successful than a little dialogue like that.

As I rubbed the stabbing feeling in my chest, I thought to myself, "Something has to change. Each day I promise myself I won't yell at the kids in the morning and yet every day I do. I don't want to. But each morning something happens that triggers me to just lose it."
Ever been there?

It's not like we wake up in the mood to get frustrated with our people, right? I mean honestly, I usually wake up in a pretty good mood. But then the stress of getting everyone ready and to school on time makes the crazy creep in. This one can't find her shoes. That one needs a report printed, and we have no ink in the printer. The dog just had an accident on the new rug because no one listened to my instructions to let her out. The bread for sandwiches is still sitting on the grocery store shelf because I forgot to buy it yesterday. And to top it all off, I have no cash to give the kids so they can buy their lunch at school.

The whining. The complaining. The feeling that I just can't ever get it all together. It all just escalates and sends me over the edge.

Well, I want our mornings together to be different.

Do you want more calm and less chaos too? Then we have to start by exchanging whispers with God before shouts with the world. Our key verse says, "Wise men store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin." (Proverbs 10:14) Even if it's only for a few minutes, I have to store up some knowledge from the Word of God first thing.

I know, I know—mornings are way too stressful to add something else in. But I like to think of it this way—when I wake up, my mind is like a dry sponge. What I soak up first will saturate me most deeply. If I don't want to be consumed with the stresses of my day, I must soak up what will renew my mind instead. When things like tight time schedules, a kid's attitude, or conflict with another person squeezes me I want to leak out peace, patience, and gentleness. And this is much more likely if I've soaked up God's transforming truth.

Even if it's only for five minutes, I've got to put the world on hold until I've had a few minutes of peace with God.

MAKING IT A REALITY:

Make a commitment for the next 31 days to read one chapter of Proverbs each day. The chapters aren't long so as you read take time to stop on nuggets of wisdom that apply to things you are facing right now. Write at least one verse per day on a 3x5 card or sticky note, and put it somewhere you'll see it throughout your day.