For The Bad Days...

Word is, at least on Facebook, that most of you moms are having a hard day. You are in good company and I have been on the verge of tears all day - after my own personal, full-on sob fest last night. It's been a long day of our a/c not working and my "finally potty trained!" THREE-year-old has regressed and my darling 8-yo just got hired as Parker County's whiner/back talker of the month. She's on track to earn a hefty bonus. Other tragedies include dogs eating Easter candy and smashing spiders that burst open, full of baby spiders. 

These are all trivial things and most of my heartache will pass by the weekend and I don't think for a single minute that my struggles are the WORST ON THE PLANET. But for me and for today, my capacity feels stretched to the outermost limits and I want to crawl under my (should-have-been-changed-two-weeks-ago) sheets and sleep until Monday. 

After a sweet e-chat with a girlfriend and finally laughing at ourselves 'til happy tears came from my tired eyes, I just wanted to get on here and tell you something simple:

The measure of your day will come 
from faithfulness not successfulness.

The problem is that most of us don't take the time to find out how to be faithful with our day. We need to start at the beginning, the dawn of schedules and appointments and the hours we've been given and find out what it will take to be faithful. Faithful for today. Faithful in today. Faithful to God first as we walk in character and integrity and choose a worshipful heart. Faithful to our husbands in stewarding our home in a way that honors him and creates space for peace. Faithful to our children with love and kisses and time spent on the floor while leaning against the whirring dishwasher. 

I think it's easy to miss the mark if we have a successful trip to the zoo but aren't faithful with our house today. We may have successfully hit the budget for grocery shopping but miss the faithfulness that needed to provide time in the haven of home for the baby to sleep in her crib. Let's take our eyes off success - which is nearly impossible to define - and set our sights on faithfulness. That way we can ask each other, no matter how it's being defined from day-to-day: "Are you being faithful with what God is calling you to?"

My week has lacked focus on both - it's easy to say that I've not been faithful and I've definitely not been successful. It's grace that only holds us accountable to faithfulness and dismisses successes. We will find that faithfulness provides some very lovely fruit in our lives that can't wither away with our shortcomings. So I'm going to exhale the success, wish it an exhausted farewell, and take a big, burning-lungs breath of faith...full...ness. 

Will you join me in faithfulness today? Freedom, my friend, FREEDOM.