Our 9 year old received a box of granola bars from his grandparents at Christmas. It was one of his favorite gifts (remind me to let his future wife know that food is definitely this boy’s love language).
Well, last night Mr. Awesome was cleaning up the pantry cupboard (bless his heart) and decided to recycle the granola bar box, then set the 3 remaining bars on the shelf, not realizing they belonged to our son, and they weren’t fair game.
Mr. Awesome also packed one in our preschooler’s snack bag for the next day. Before bed I realized what had happened and told Mr. Awesome that this could cause a big meltdown. His response was something like, “oops, he’ll figure it out”.
I mean, yeah, he’s right, it really isn’t THAT big of a deal. I just know how each of my kids operate, and this kid shares EVERYTHING. No joke, when he was opening gifts he immediately offered a bar to everyone who was gathered around our little Charlie Brown Christmas tree and then waited over a full 24 hours to eat one himself, in case anyone else was hungry for them.
Honestly, his heart is mostly gold.
This morning I told our boy (in a totally cool tone), “Hey Bud, dad didn’t know those were your bars in the cupboard so he recycled the box. Maybe you should use a Sharpie to label them with your name.
He took it just about how I thought he would. He was mad, but held it back a little because he knew it was something silly to be mad about, and it was an honest mistake.
Then another minute passed he decided he was downright ticked (which is out of character for this sensitive little one).
He shouts “I’M PUTTING MY NAME ON EACH ONE, AND I’M ADDING AN APOSTROPHE S ON THEM, BECAUSE THEY BELONG TO ME!”
I accidentally snort-laughed, but I think it’s just what the moment needed.
Yep, those bars did belong to him, and they did deserve an apostrophe-s. Looks like our First Language Lessons sessions are paying off after all!
You know what, sometimes I feel just like how he did. I feel Satan creeping in, I feel anger under my skin over something that shouldn’t even be an issue. I feel like nothing is going right, I feel like a failure of a mom, a crappy wife, and like I have absolutely nothing going for myself.
I feel like I have no control for a bit, and I sometimes even shout something dumb out into the air.
Then I wonder what the heck I did that for.
Come on, I’m sure you can all relate with feeling like ‘poo’ at one time or another.
Well, the great thing of it is, then I remember who I belong to.
I’m God’s girl.
And you know what?
God doesn’t make no junk!
Life is crazy if you don’t have direction and a sense of belonging.
I’ve tried to live life on my own without acknowledging how much I needed God, and how much I belonged to him. It gave me temporary happiness because I wasn’t accountable to anyone. But long term, there was just no hope.
I want you each to remember the same thing, you belong to GOD.
You are precious in his sight, you are amazing, and you are wonderful. I’m not even exaggerating here. You are worth more than you could ever imagine, because you belong to GOD.
No matter who took your granola bars, no matter how inadequate you feel, no matter how many fun size chocolate bars you’ve had, even though you gave up sugar for the new year (and that plan clearly sank before day 4)… You are enough. You belong.
Keep fighting the good fight. Sometimes that means you fight fierce and push through the hard stuff, and other times that means you take a break to just keep breathing.
There is no shame in taking a minute to breathe when things are hard. #SelfCare
My dear sweet friends, when your days are feeling long and hard, and the world is making you feel crappy…. Remember this:
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