Matter of Choice

Yesterday morning was the worst! I woke up and felt ill for some reason. You ever have days like that? You are so irritable you can not hardly stand yourself? Well that was me yesterday! Let me just clue you in on how my day started! [...]
First of all, me and the hubby have a standing agreement about how our weekend free time is allocated. Since he works all week naturally he wants some time on the weekends to do his projects etc. And because I am home all week with three kids, I want some time for myself and my projects on the weekend as well. So in order to be fair we divide the weekend up. Saturday is his day. He does whatever projects he wants to do, sleeps in if he wants too, whatever he wants to do, he can. And it is free from "nagging" as some men like to call it. ;) Then on Sunday, its my day! I am a pretty easy girl to get along with as long as I have sleep. So if I am behind on sleep I usually take a nap on Sunday- and he watches the kids so I can because it's my day. Okay, now that you have a little background on things, I can continue.

So it was my day, but it was off to a rough start! I have been sick- first with the stomach virus now with a cold (errr!)- and I wanted to rest. But for some reason, someone forgot our agreement (I am not going to name any names here). The baby was in the crib right next to me crying and he did not come and get him (did I mention this was supposed to be my day??!) so I had to get up with him. First wrong of the day.

Next, I took baby and put him in his high chair so I could feed him his breakfast. While I am a walking zombie, seriously I looked half dead, I was sitting feeding the baby and what did he do!? He BLOWS it ALL in my face! Banana baby food with baby rice cereal- all in my face! Second wrong of the day!

So I get baby fed, finally, and I give him his juice to drink while I eat myself. After a few minutes I had finished eating, put away my dishes and baby starts to cry. I figure he must need a diaper change. So I pick him up, and put him on my hip. (You know how a mama carries her baby. Just throws them up there like it was a built in chair!) In the mean time as I am walking baby back to the room to change him, I am on the telephone getting fussed at for something someone did not think I had done soon enough to please them. As I get almost to the bedroom, I feel something warm and wet seeping in my shirt and running down my leg. Yep, you guessed it, poop! And not just a little bit but it was EVERYWHERE!! All over me, all over him, all in the floor- everywhere! Third and fourth wrong of the day!

So you get the picture!? It was not a good day!!! But something amazing happened just shortly after! I caught myself getting all worked up. I was getting ill, I was even venting a little bit but then it hit me. There is not one thing I can do about all this that has already happened now. I can allow these things to make my day miserable or I can get over it and have a great day! Guess what I chose?

I opened all the windows in the house (it was in the upper 70's), turned on my praise and worship music and started dancing!

"Shake" by Mercy Me came on and I CRUNK up the volume and just started singing, clapping and dancing! I even grabbed Ian and had him start dancing with me! In a few minutes my bad mood changed and I was grinning and smiling. You see I used to let things that went wrong get me down and keep me down but you know what I found out? It ain't worth it!

I could have let everything that happened keep me in a bad mood all day long. I could have been mad at the person that was fussing at me and could have sit around and worried about it but what good would it have done? NONE! And all I would have done is ruined the day for everyone else in my family too!

God talks a lot about attitude in the Bible. He tells us to dwell on things that are pure and lovely (Philippians 4:8). He tells us to be transformed by renewing our minds (Romans 12:2). He tells us to be strong and of good courage (Joshua 1:8). He tells us to not be afraid (Matthew 14:27). But here is the real secret!

No matter how much God tells you these things, if we do not DO THEM then hearing them does us no good! Attitude is something we have to chose! Well I can't help how I feel. BULL! If things were different then I would...BULL! If you wait for everything in life to be perfect before you chose to enjoy living- you are going to die a miserable person! If you are a believer in Christ you have NO REASON to be miserable! Why? Because you know that in this world you are going to have troubles. God tells us we will. (John 16:33) We live in a fallen, sinful world and until we are on the other side of eternity things are going to go wrong. BUT ONE DAY all will be perfect! All justice will be served! All sin will be gone! All wrongs will be made right! All sickness will be healed! JESUS has already won the battle!

Cheer up friend! You have a choice to make! If you have a hard time being cheerful, starting praising God for everything you have in your life. Are you going to allow your circumstances to knock you flat on your back or are you going to live life full of joy!? It is all a matter of choice!