I was going to ask, Do you ever…? But instead, how often do you completely overdo your weekend? Because oops–we did it again.
This morning, it showed. It was ugly. Not one child wanted to get up, so there was coaxing, soft and sweet at first. I always begin this way. It doesn’t often yield the intended result. So I persist, in between trying to get my own overtired self ready.
Then I flip lights on, hard and fast–the morning kiss of death. I hate bright lights in the morning. Sunlight coming in the windows? Yes, love. But manufactured overhead lights? Oh, please no! Anything but that!!!
Then my voice gets higher and louder. And I issue threats. Do you need to lose {fill in the blank} this afternoon? If you don’t get up and get ready, YOU WILL, buddy. TRY ME.
The threat works. Shew! They forgot how inconsistent I tend to be. They believed I would remember to carry it out. Thanks for the confidence, kids.
With the seriously amazing, above-and-beyond help of my husband (He is the greatest!!!), all we tired people have gotten to school or work or the quiet café this morning. But we’re feeling Monday. The late nights because of sleepovers and long dinners with friends and a handful of basketball games played or cheered for (GO DUKE!), and then rounding it out with the Food Truck Rodeo yesterday afternoon…Wow. That was a weekend!
I sat cozied in my car a few extra minutes this morning, asking God to help me live in the light of His presence today. To help me not to ignore Him as I walk through “my” day. I know that sounds wrong, that I might ignore God, but sometimes I do. I focus on what I need to get done. I just get moving, and I forget Him until I need Him.
That’s my sometimes truth, and I’m sad it’s true, but it still is. What’s beautiful is this: God is not thrown off by my inconsistencies. He is not overshadowed by my weaknesses. He doesn’t go away, even when I do.
Instead, God hears me, from a car polluted by kid shoes, loom bands, water bottles, paper scraps, messy windows, and a hundred pieces of crayola. A car I told my little sweethearts to “clean out before they get out” yesterday, but clearly, not a car I followed up on.
I sat there praying, and He filled me. It’s hard to explain to anyone who doesn’t know what it is to be filled by God. But that’s what happened. I entered His presence, staring at one of the many messes in my life, but when I fixed my eyes on the God of the Universe, my whole tired outlook changed.
Suddenly I noticed the air full of spring. Birds flitting about a sky more blue than winter. It’s Monday, yes, and I love this world we get to live in. I love the Creator Who spoke it into being and gave us all a speaking part. My heart turned grateful again, and my lips spilled it for a while.
Thank you, Father, for Mondays and spring and messes and all the loves this tiredness represents. Thank you, Father, for YOU and this life…and everything.
God bless you, truly, this overtired Monday…
