Perspective
(from a mom of toddlers)



Children, children, children. Wow. While definitely a blessing, they can really get at you, huh? My boys (1 &3) had ants in their pants Monday, so I got out the chalk and gave them a rag to clean off their chalkboard before proceeding. Great! This gives me some time to catch up on reading for 2 minutes and returning emails for 2 minutes! :) 4 minutes later I went over to make sure they were being good. And what I found was a perfect picture of original sin. They were wetting their blue and red pieces of chalk with the rag I had given them and writing all over the carpet (which they knew was a huge no-no)! I had David(3) help me clean it up for the next 15 minutes. I was so grateful it was coming up that I figured it was okay that I was spending my time cleaning it. As I finished the last little streak a noise caught my attention. It was a scribbling noise. I looked over to see Liam (1) aggressively marking the light colored wall with black crayon. Don't get frustrated this won't take that long to clean up. Wrong again! After I ushered my little stinkers outside to play, I used every household cleaner I had looked at several websites for advice and still there was large gashes of black all over the wall. Finally I covered the art work in soda paste and decided to leave it for the rest of the day. You might think that those little boys could do no wrong in a fenced backyard, but no, they had taken a magazine as I was pushing them out the door and had shredded it. All. Over. The. Deck.

That was it.

Nap time came early yesterday and I stomped back downstairs with the camera so I could show my husband what a disaster the house was that morning before I cleaned it up. I decided that I had to stand on the counter to get the full affect of the mess. It wasn't enough that I had just had to leave all my family and friends to live in a new place with no help? They had to be BAD, too?! I grumbled as I climbed up onto the counter. But as looked through the lens I started laughing.

From that perspective I could see all the stations of playing and creating where my boys had been all morning...that had given them joy, entertainment and opportunities to gain wisdom on what is right and wrong. God brought back to mind when we were hiking in the Alps.


I could be near one of the most breathtaking sights of my life, but if I just looked at the dirt path and my shoes trudging along, I would never appreciate those glorious mountains. God was letting me see Monday morning through a new perspective. And I need that.

Or all I will see is dirt.