Every morning I have good intentions. With a sweet sing-song voice I wake up my 11 and 12 year old daughters. “Good morning beautiful” I say as I gently touch their soft cheeks, gazing at their beautiful long eyelashes. They’re getting so big! The dog stretches and shakes off ready for her morning snuggles. While they hop in the shower and begin the morning routine, I lovingly make their lunches usually with just one eye open and multiple yawns. I open the blinds to let the warm sunshine in. What a gorgeous morning!
As the morning continues something starts happening. The time is ticking and I realize we all need to get a move on. My sweet sing-song voice turns gruff and short-tempered as I realize they still don’t have their shoes on despite being asked multiple times. One of them hasn’t brushed their teeth, and the other has spilled jelly everywhere while trying to get it on her toast. “Feed the dog!” I snap the other as I tell them that we had to leave 5 minutes ago.
Once we are finally walking out the car, I become the referee in regards to who gets the front seat. With a roll of my eyes I find myself saying things like “just because your sister didn’t touch the door handle doesn’t mean she doesn’t get to sit shotgun”. Who knew there were such intricacies in the rules of shotgun?
All my good intentions have now been thrown out the proverbial window and I have had it. I’m half the Mary Poppins mom I wanted to be, and I’ve only been awake for 45 minutes! The truth is, with all my good intentions and plans to be awesome, more often than not, I’m really screwing this Mom thing up. I have come to the realization time and time again that I absolutely cannot, without a doubt walk through this job of motherhood without the moment by moment help of my Savior. I need Him to invade. To change my tone of voice and the temperature of my heart.
So every morning sways from promising, to hectic, but there’s always a beautiful bookend to our mornings. It’s my favorite part! As we drive we read a Bible verse and talk about what it means to us, and how we can apply it. As we pull off our freeway exit we pray. Prayers of thankfulness for a sunny day, for safety, hard work in class and good decisions even if everyone else is making a bad choice. God is so good to hear the cries of a harried mom who is just doing her best to get by. A mom who wants desperately for her kids to see Jesus in her. A mom who wants them to know that she constantly depended on her precious Savior to give her what she needed everyday. I think they call that leading by example. Oh I pray that as they grow they will always realize their need for Him.
I know one day I will miss these mornings. In a few years when my oldest will be doing the driving to school, my mornings may be a little less hectic, but they’ll also be too quiet. I cherish these AM drives. On the odd morning that my husband does the drop off, I miss the time I’m able to read and pray with them.
Yes I may be messing up most days, but in the end, I can’t go wrong turning the day back over to Him when it’s gone a bit crazy, and letting my kids see that my completeness comes from Jesus alone. I love that in this busy world, God is our quiet, and the One that brings hectic back to beautiful.