The Dailies, #4

Hi, David. Glad to read that the orchestra session was going well. And thanks for calling earlier today. I miss you so much.

Am very glad we've stayed with Cub again tonight. He was even more pleased about it than I expected. Thanks for helping me decide what to do.

The kids did so well in church this morning. Matthew slept in someone's arms through most of his class! I couldn't believe it--I never would have predicted it! The lady who got to hold him really enjoyed it, I think. She told me he was "a darling baby" and thanked me for bringing him to class. "Uh, no," I said, "thank you!"

Here's a cute sound-byte from one of these recent days... I forget which one. I took Matthew over to say goodnight to Meg at a nap time. "Say goodnight to your brother, Meg," I said.

"Goodnight, Brother!" she said. "Obey Mommy!" Sounds an awful lot like what you say when you leave for work in the mornings, eh?

And as I was typing this, I heard her say it again on her way upstairs to "put teddy bear to bed RIGHT NOW!" (Those last two words are a recent addition to her teddy-to-bed game--she always shouts them.) "See ya later, Buddy! Obey Mommy!"

I'm afraid, however, that Meg was not much able to take her own advice this evening. She was not obeying, and she was finding herself quite funny in her disobedience. I was not. In fact, I was very angry with her much of the afternoon and had to ask her forgiveness multiple times. Oh, my wretched sin. I am so grateful for the gospel, which allowed me to say to Meg tonight, after my third or fourth apology, "Meg, Mommy is a sinner who needs a Savior. That's why Jesus came to die on the cross for my sins. Jesus is our Savior." How I pray that God's saving grace will be magnified in Meg's eyes through her mommy's many failures.

At one exasperated moment tonight, I had the thought, "There's nothing I can do to make her understand!" (I wanted her to STOP laughing every time she disobeyed me and understand the seriousness of her own sin.) And then I had the thought, "That's right. There's nothing I can do." And when I realized afresh that God is the only one who can do what needs doing in Meg's little heart, I finally experienced the release of the weight I'd been carrying all evening--the terrible pressure I sometimes (wrongly) feel to make her obey. I think this may be the root of my anger with Meg even more often than I realize. I want and need to examine this area of my heart more.

I got only three pictures today, and one of them is pretty bad, but it will make you smile, I think, because it's a familiar scene:

And since we're covering Meg's snacktime, let's just stick with the theme of munching. Here's Matthew, doing his best to eat Cheerios...

...and to eat mulch.