rosalea’s new lightning mcqueen hat that adam brought back from california... which is the HOME of lightning mcqueen... as WE ALL KNOW.
when he brought the hat out for her she JUMPED up and down shouting, “AWESOME, IT’S AWESOME!!!!!!!”
note to self: if one is going to write an entire blog post on how one needs to change one’s attitude toward discipline and correction, one might needs to expect that one might be tested on that new exciting attitude before one’s bedtime that evening.
yes, one might want to be aware of that...
so yesterday around 4:30 adam arrived home after almost a week of being gone. we had a little snacky dinner birthday party with cheese and crackers and chips and dips (his favorite snacky dinner foods). he opened presents. gave rosalea that hat. and then the kids and i headed up to church.
when we got home right before 9:00 it was make lunches, rush everyone to bed. and then i cleaned up the kitchen from the snacky dinner and was waiting until about 9:30 to start watching the season finale of “lost”. and i was going to fold laundry as i watched. adam was in his office on the exercise bike watching the hockey game.
and i turned on the tv and the dvr to watch my show. which i had checked earlier in the day to make sure it was ready to record...
and i had not recorded.
i asked adam about it and he said that he had been watching the hockey game in there and so it might have stopped the recording.
and i was mad. it is so much easier to serve your husband and to care about his needs when he is out of town...
the other night at book club one of the women was talking about how she REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to go to the water park...
like, i have never met anyone who wanted something more than this gal wanted to go to a water park. in fact if you asked her today if she wanted Jesus to come back OR to go to a water park...
she MIGHT pick the Jesus part IF you could offer her proof of heavenly water slides.
anyway, i didn’t need to watch “lost” that badly (because i knew i could watch it on the internet in a day or two anyway)... but i had planned to watch it, i had organized my evening around it. i had washed lots of clothes so i would have lots of laundry to fold as to not feel totally decadent watching it. i had cleaned the kitchen so that i would start it about 30 minutes in so i could fast forward through the commercials.
yes, i had thought of everything...
except that lost was lost.
just like this gal’s water park trip got lost. and it happened kind of by her husband’s actions. and we were all trying to talk her out of some of her anger.
and my comment was that he hadn’t MURDERED her water park, he had just involuntary manslaughtered her water park.
and the same with my “lost” viewing. adam didn’t willfully murder it, i could only charge him with involuntary manslaughter of lost...
and the whole time i am thinking... consider it like someone pulling my skirt over my underwear. accept this discipline with the same gracious spirit... be so thankful and loving...
and i kind of did. and so i watched something else and folded laundry. and i can watch “lost” today online.
but remind me not to blog about accepting things well anymore... too much pressure on me in the evening when i am too tired for spiritual pop quizzes...
onto today’s proverb for proverbially living.
this is one of my favorite proverbs because it just SPEAKS to a neat freak like myself...
proverbs 14:4
Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean,
but abundant crops come by the strength of oxen.
when it comes to owning oxen (or having a husband and children), there are disadvantages. they do dirty up a manger/feed trough. they do cancel your season finale episode of lost. they tend to have their own schedules that in no way resemble the schedule that you had in mind when you rose out of bed that morning. they have needs and they have wants that do not always take into consideration my needs and wants...
if you don’t have any oxen (or husband and children), you can save a lot of time and expense and can watch that episode of lost WHENEVER your want to and have considerably less laundry to fold while watching AND no one will have eaten the last serving of tiramisu that you were trying to hide in the back of the fridge so you could eat it during lost. sometimes i like to consider what having a “clean manger” might look like...
and it looks really clean and neat and organized and scheduled and there is plenty of tiramisu and that episode of lost might be really really exciting...
but it isn’t real. and it is lonely. and the tiramisu is delicious but no one complements me on my cooking...
on the other hand, oxen are the tools for an abundant harvest. their cost and inconvenience does not compare with their productivity and the joy that they bring (and the way that they are helping so to contribute to my sanctification process). the “abundant crops” are so worth the “dirty manger”... and so are my husband and my children.
the message version puts it this way...
“no cattle, no crops”.
sometimes i really do LOVE the message version...
a harvest of righteousness is worth the dishes, the laundry, the last tiramisu, the lost “lost”, the sleep deprivation, the early mornings, the late evenings, the step by step sloughing off of my selfishness and pride. it will be worth it. abundant crops is better than a house that looks like the cover of “house beautiful”...
now i am off to watch lost online. and then i will clean up this old manger and i will be glad to do it because there is so my strength in my oxen...